2 Jun 2023

Online tool to stem accidental deaths at crowd gatherings

From Nine To Noon, 9:40 am on 2 June 2023
Rescuers attend an injured man lying on the pitch following a stampede during a football match between Alianza and FAS at Cuscatlán stadium in San Salvador on 20 May, 2023, which killed at least nine people.

Rescuers attend an injured man lying on the pitch following a stampede during a football match between Alianza and FAS at Cuscatlán stadium in San Salvador on 20 May, 2023, which killed at least nine people. Photo: Milton Flores / AFP

Researchers in Sydney and Tokyo have created a database of more than 280 crowd accidents, including multiple fatalities at religious festivals and sporting events. Their findings have been published in the Safety Science journal with the hope of reducing future mass casualties at large events.

In the most recent deadly gathering, 12 people died and 500 were injured last month during a stampede at a football match in San Salvador.

Last year a Halloween crowd crush in Seoul resulted in more than 150 deaths. And 24 years ago 97 British football fans at the Hillsborough Stadium disaster. 

University of New South Wales senior lecturer and crowd safety researcher Dr Milad Haghani says there are many ways that such tragedies could be averted. 

Crowds are seen around the area, where dozens of people suffered cardiac arrest, in the popular nightlife district of Itaewon in Seoul on October 30, 2022. - Dozens of people suffered from cardiac arrest in the South Korean capital Seoul, after thousands of people crowded into narrow streets in the city's Itaewon neighbourhood to celebrate Halloween, local officials said. (Photo by Jung Yeon-je / AFP)

Halloween crush in Seoul Photo: AFP