44 Killed In Stampede at Israel Pilgrimage Site

In Israel, at least 44 people have been killed and around 150 others injured in a stampede at a religious gathering attended by tens of thousands.
It happened at Mount Meron in the northern part of the country - where ultra-Orthodox Jews were holding an all-night prayer and dance celebration.

Looks as though they were having a blast.

50,000 people in such close proximity. Let's see if there is a spike in covid cases in Israel in the next week or two.

RIP those who lost their lives and those who are about to...Maybe?

a reply to: Soloprotocol

Hats off to you Solo for posting this Crazy days with the Religious types. They do seem to get into a frenzy in the fezzies and hopefully g-d looks after the fallen and it's a prayer or more to them and all the fallen on Planet Earth while it's good to see Ultra Orthodox out there in number again after what happened to them in Eastern Europre in the 40's

a reply to: Soloprotocol

Greetings Soloprotocol,

Such a shame, still not clear on WHAT caused the stampede though...??

People will do the craziest things sometimes.

Someone, or a group of people wanted to "hurry up" and get home, (1 am); so they start shoving people, like that will help?

Good to see them having a good time though, sad to see it end in tragedy.

You can bet they will have a better "system" in place next year...

Needed police there to make people behave better, and no shoving of folks. Needed better exit strategy too.

Pravdaseeker

Restrict people's activities for too long and they go nuts when they get to do things again. There were way too many people there, I suppose many people wanted to go in case they locked things down again for another year if the virus mutated and they could not vaccinate people.

originally posted by: pravdaseeker
a reply to: Soloprotocol

Greetings Soloprotocol,

Such a shame, still not clear on WHAT caused the stampede though...??



Pravdaseeker

From what I was told, the ramp they were walking down was metal and got slippery.

Once one went down it kinda snowballed. There's a video on LL that shows people trying to pull people from the crush, Packed like sardines, and going nowhere.

Reminded me of Hillsborough or Heysel stadium disasters.

I get so frustrated watching these events knowing people are losing their lives yet if everyone just started moving back those at the front could be pulled up and out.

Unfortunately, those at the back have no clue what's going on, they just keep pushing forward.

a reply to: Soloprotocol

Hello again Solo,

Good grief.... what a tragedy!!! How simple it would have been to avoid this terrible debacle.

Where was the "Health & Safety" committee when they planned this festival??? (Rhetorical question)

Metal ramps are about the worst thing you could have! Even metal grating gets terribly slippery when it is wet.

Sadly, most of the "rules" and "laws" encompassing health and safety... were legislated because of exactly what took place here in Israel. Someone, or group of someones makes a terrible blunder, kills people...and THEN they see the danger, and make new laws and rules, so it doesn't happen again, hopefully.

Folks need to review festivals, music concerts etc, that they plan on attending for exits; and have a plan in case some stupid crap goes down with the crowd. Hug the wall or fencing, and hang on. Stay out of the middle of the crowd.

And if it looks a bit too crazy, LEAVE EARLY, before it ends. Beat the rush out the gates. Or just wait until the majority get out, and crowd thins, then make your exit move.

Pravdaseeker

a reply to: pravdaseeker

Such a shame, still not clear on WHAT caused the stampede though...??

I'm just going to go with mob mentality (not intended to come off as negative).

But large groups in such close proximity, if distress is sensed, and a portion start moving fast, you don't have to know the reason why, you just feel the sense of urgency.

So panic will spread like a virus.

Good Lord. They were forced into a narrower and narrower chute. The force was behind them. They had to flow or fall. There should have been breaks (walls) within the field to allow places for people to retreat.

I hope positive changes are made due to this event.

a reply to: Soloprotocol

Are you saying there was more death caused by organized religion?

Say it ain't so!

a reply to: argentus
That is exactly what happened. Very narrow exit hallways always bunch people up and with those behind unknowingly pushing this was just an accident that was bound to happen.
No mater where you go these big venues all have tunnel like hallways. On entering it's OK because people arrive at staggered times, but on exit everybody wants to get out "first" and that cause the crushes. The way to mitigate this is to manufacture all exits so they are narrow at the start then widen as the go, problem solved.

This sadly remembers me about the tragic, last Love Parade in 2010, Duisburg, Germany.

21 died
650+ injured

People were trying to pull fallen down ones up again but the masses just kept on pushing, trampled them down on live TV or crushed them at the gates. Knowing it from concerts, this moment when fear starts to strike you. You're tossed around in waves, just like in the ocean and there's nothing you can do except try to stay calm and get out of the danger zone.

This reminded me of
Rachel Corrie the 17 year old girl
who was crushed by a bulldozer in israel.
www.independent.co.uk...


.

a reply to: crayzeed

Your solution is perfect. We should arrive at great venues, and narrow down to enter. No rush, the show won't start until the majority are seated. Because the exit will be the inverse of the entry, once people begin to leave, the area opens up.

Brilliant solution.