EXPLAINER: Here is why crowd surges can kill people
ABC News
The crowd deaths at a Houston music festival have added to the long list of people who have been crushed at a major event
NEW YORK -- The crowd deaths at a Houston music festival added even more names to the long list of people who have been crushed at a major event.
Tragedies like the one Friday night at the Astroworld Music Festival have been happening for a long time. In 1979, 11 people died in a scramble to enter a Cincinnati, Ohio, concert by The Who. At the Hillsborough soccer stadium in England, a human crush in 1989 led to nearly 100 deaths. In 2015, a collision of two crowds at the hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia caused more than 2,400 deaths, based on an Associated Press count of media reports and officials’ comments.
Now that more people are heading out of their homes and back into crowds after many months of being cooped up because of the pandemic, the risks are rising again.
Most major events happen without a death, of course, but experts say they see common traits within the tragedies. Here’s a look at how they happen:
