Crowd collapses and crushes

245 people died in the Lyon bridge disaster of 1711, when a large crowd returning from a festival on one side of the bridge found their way blocked by a collision between a carriage and a cart, and became trapped

Crowd collapses and crowd crushes are catastrophic incidents that can occur when a body of people becomes dangerously overcrowded. When numbers are up to about five people per square meter,[a] the environment may feel cramped but manageable; when numbers reach between eight and ten people per square meter,[1][b] individuals become pressed against each other and may be swept along against their will by the motion of the crowd.[2] Under these conditions, the crowd may undergo a progressive collapse where the pressure pushes people off their feet, resulting in people being trampled or crushed by the weight of other people falling on top of them. At even higher densities, the pressure on each individual can cause them to be crushed or asphyxiated while still upright.[3]

Such incidents are invariably the product of organizational failures, and most major crowd disasters could have been prevented by simple crowd management strategies.[4] Such incidents can occur at large gatherings such as sporting, commercial, social, and religious events. The critical factor is crowd density rather than crowd size.[5]

Crowd collapses and crushes are often reported incorrectly as human stampedes, which typically occur when a large group of people all try to get away from a perceived risk to life.[6]


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  1. ^ Haghani, Milad; Lovreglio, Ruggiero (9 December 2022). "Data-based tools can prevent crowd crushes". Science. 378 (6624): 1060–1061. Bibcode:2022Sci...378.1060H. doi:10.1126/science.adf5949. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 36480619. S2CID 254485601.
  2. ^ "Crowd and traffic control could have prevented Seoul Halloween deaths". Japan Times. Bloomberg, Reuters. 1 November 2022.
  3. ^ Tchechne, Martin (2022). "Nine per square meter" (PDF). Max Planck Institute for Human Development.
  4. ^ Fruin 2002, p. 6.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Benedictus was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Syed, Armani (31 October 2022). "Why Crowd Crushes Like South Korea's Halloween Surge Are So Deadly". Time. Retrieved 17 May 2023.