The phenomenon of sports stampede
Stampedes are a very dangerous phenomenon in sports. They occur very frequently in stadiums all over the world and they usually leave a lot of damage and fatalities in their wake. The power of masses of humans charging towards something is an extremely powerful
force and for those that get caught in a stampede, it can be devastating. It seems people panic at the slightest hint of trouble and due to the fact that they are in a massive crowd of people, they become one heaving bulge of destruction. Recently seven people
were killed in a stampede in the Kenyan capital Nairobi when they were trying to get into a stadium to watch a football match. Serious work needs to be done to combat this problem in the future.
The science of stampedes is only now beginning to be understood. The devastating crowd phenomenon has been around since time immemorial because for all times crowds have formed at large social gatherings and inadvertently sometimes stampedes occur. The word
comes from the movement of a huge crowd of animals or cattle that start to charge in a particular direction and cannot be stopped until it comes to a stop on its own. In the same way, a human stampede is caused by a panic and everyone in the crowd start to
move in a particular direction on their own and the deaths come from people in the crowd getting trampled under the feet of others in the crowd.
The little bit of research that has been conducted into stampedes says that a crowd of people needs to reach a critical density before it has the potential to turn deadly. The number of people that can create critical density point is calculated to be about
10 people per square metre or about 2600 people in a space the size of a tennis court. Psychology comes into the picture now and says that a crowd of that size and larger that is confined in a particular space can go in either of two ways. Any sudden panic
in one part of the crowd can prompt mass hysteria among numerous others and the wave of fear spreads. The crowd can either go in a unidirectional path as in follow a single path to try and find an exit or two crowds can merge together into a single stampede
and this phenomenon is called a turbulent stampede.
Over the years there have been numerous stampedes that have occurred at sporting events and it seems all it takes is one spark of fear to instigate mass panic among people. Or it could even be something as simple as opening up of the doors of a venue or
even keeping them closed. Some deaths have occurred when a gate is suddenly opened to let people into a sporting venue and someone falls and then someone else trips over them and they get trampled underfoot. An example of one of the worst stampede disasters
took place in Ghana, Africa when 120 people were killed at a football match in 2001. This was stated to be the worst stampede disaster in African football history.
Recently in Kenya, seven football fans were killed in a stampede that occurred when people were trying to enter a stadium to watch a match taking place between two of the country’s most popular teams; Gor Mahia and AFC Leopards. Six people were trampled
to death while another person died later at the hospital from injuries sustained. The worst part of this incident was that the match continued without a hitch as if the deaths had not even occurred. In a situation like this no one is really to blame because
a crowd suddenly starts to think like a single unit and all it sees is a way to get into the game, but the officials could have been suspended the match out of respect of the 7 people that lost their lives.
Sports stampedes are very tragic and more work needs to be done to study the problem and find ways to counter it. Maybe more security or crowd control techniques might pay off or single file entrances into stadiums might also help. Whatever is done it needs
to be implemented because sports stadiums should not become places of death, they should be places of fun and enjoyment.
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