How One of the Deadliest Hajj Accidents Unfolded
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Re: How One of the Deadliest Hajj Accidents Unfolded
#2> caused by two large groups of pilgrims converging onto Street 204
Sounds like a traffic management problem. Article doesn't mention any steps the organizers are making to fix it. Perhaps controls at intersections?
Re: How One of the Deadliest Hajj Accidents Unfolded
#3[deleted]
Re: How One of the Deadliest Hajj Accidents Unfolded
#4> caused by two large groups of pilgrims converging onto Street 204 Sounds like a traffic management problem. Article doesn't mention any steps the organizers are making to fix it. Perhaps controls at intersections?
>Article doesn't mention any steps the organizers are making to fix it
That's because they are making none. The "steps" (rituals) of Hajj have been the same for over 1400 years, there's no reason for such accidents to happen when you:
Know where people are headed.
When people are headed there.
The number of those people.
And most importantly UNLIMITED fucking ressources!
Knowing that many people lost their lives because incompetent idiots can't manage shit infuriates me and especially when a royal Saudi clerk (can't find an English source) says that the Sub-Saharan victims were better off dying in the "holy lands" than in their messy countries.
I am so glad I've renounced my religion, people often poke fun at the materialism of christianity by mentioning Indulgence and not realize Hajj is the most exploitive religious act anyone can engage in.
In essence, fuck the Saudi Royal Family.
Re: How One of the Deadliest Hajj Accidents Unfolded
#5> caused by two large groups of pilgrims converging onto Street 204 Sounds like a traffic management problem. Article doesn't mention any steps the organizers are making to fix it. Perhaps controls at intersections?
>Article doesn't mention any steps the organizers are making to fix it That's because they are making none. The "steps" (rituals) of Hajj have been the same for over 1400 years, there's no reason for such accidents to happen when you: Know where people are headed. When people are headed there. The number of those people. And most importantly UNLIMITED fucking ressources! Knowing that many people lost their lives beca…
I think expansion of the pathways and re-architecting the landscape to take on capacity has created conditions for "mega" stampedes, so instead of few people here and there, the stampede cascades and creates bigger chaos and takes more lives.
This is what happens when expansion of capacity is done without decent safety measures in place.
Re: How One of the Deadliest Hajj Accidents Unfolded
#6Lest anyone think this is a Hajj-only phenomenon, Wikipedia has a nicely sourced List of Human Crushes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_human_crushes
Re: How One of the Deadliest Hajj Accidents Unfolded
#7Even after reading the piece, I'm still struggling to understand the mechanics of it all.
Under normal conditions, when people walking in front of you stop, you stop also so you don't bump into them. Makes sense, right?
So you would think that as long as everybody obeys that simple rule of movement, this should never happen.
But having been caught in a much less serious "crush" once, I know it's not that simple.
In my case, I was at a similar event -- religious in nature, lots of people from all around the world, and mostly traveling in groups -- and although everybody was polite and non-aggressive, as groups traveled through the crowds, nobody wanted to be separated from their groups, and that caused major issues.
For instance, a lot of groups traveled while holding hands in an effort to remain together. But imagine how much more difficult it is for a bunch of worm-like people chains to travel through a crowd than it is for discrete individuals to do so.
The surge I was caught in was little more than a momentary push forward, but it was very scary to lose control over my ability to move freely.
I would hope that with most people having cell phones nowadays, which gives them the ability to more easily regroup after separation, it should be a priority in cases like this to urge people to not form chains and to devalue staying with their group if it affects the flow of traffic.
Re: How One of the Deadliest Hajj Accidents Unfolded
#8Even after reading the piece, I'm still struggling to understand the mechanics of it all. Under normal conditions, when people walking in front of you stop, you stop also so you don't bump into them. Makes sense, right? So you would think that as long as everybody obeys that simple rule of movement, this should never happen. But having been caught in a much less serious "crush" once, I know it's not that simple. In m…
Thinking about the sheer numbers might help imagining the mechanics. 2 million pilgrims crowded into very specific places at or near Makkah that year. For reference, the population of Chicago is 2.7 million.
Re: How One of the Deadliest Hajj Accidents Unfolded
#9Even after reading the piece, I'm still struggling to understand the mechanics of it all. Under normal conditions, when people walking in front of you stop, you stop also so you don't bump into them. Makes sense, right? So you would think that as long as everybody obeys that simple rule of movement, this should never happen. But having been caught in a much less serious "crush" once, I know it's not that simple. In m…
I once saw a reddit comment that explained it really, really well: https://np.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/3pcvfb/saudi_arab...
Re: How One of the Deadliest Hajj Accidents Unfolded
#10Even after reading the piece, I'm still struggling to understand the mechanics of it all. Under normal conditions, when people walking in front of you stop, you stop also so you don't bump into them. Makes sense, right? So you would think that as long as everybody obeys that simple rule of movement, this should never happen. But having been caught in a much less serious "crush" once, I know it's not that simple. In m…
The problem is that people don't stop immediately. You stop, the person behind you stops just a little bit later, the person behind them a little bit later than that. As you're walking the gaps in between people shrink. Finally the person in front of you stops, you try to stop but the person behind you is close and bumps in to you a bit as you try to stop, you bump the person ahead of you who has stopped because they can't move forward, which squeezes the person ahead of him. Repeat for thousands of people and you have a collection of tiny small bumps and pushes that squeeze people to the point of death.