Horrible Stampdede Tragedy in Cambodia

The curse of the deadly human stampeded has struck again, this time in Cambodia, on a massive and terrifying scale.

The Associated Press reports (via The New York Times website) "Hundreds Die in Stampede in Cambodia"

GlobalPost reports "Cambodia: More than 300 die in stampdede"

CNN reports "Stampede in Cambodia kills hundreds, government says"

I get nervous when a very large crowd gets too dense. I always stay aware of evacuation routes.

Human Stampede in Germany Kills 15

An ugly scene, this time, in Germany, at a gigantic techno music festival.

"The festival, which drew about 1.4 million people, was not immediately cancelled because authorities feared that could spark a second panic and more chaos at the crowded venue."

At least 15 dead inside a tunnel after mass panic broke out due to overcrowding.

The New York Times carries the Reuters story, with photos and video. Terrible.

This sort of thing seems to happen once a year or so somewhere in the world. No matter how advanced our technology, this danger will persist whenever large, dense crowds of people amass.

Obviously, the music festival organizers should have been better prepared to manage the crowd size and flow of people.

Wal-Mart Stampede Kills One in New York

It's happened again and this time it happened in the U.S.  A rowdy, ugly mob of early morning shoppers literally burst through locked glass doors at a Wal-Mart near Queens, New York, on Black Friday. A 34 year old temporary maintenance worker was savagely trampled to death, just hours after enjoying Thanksgiving dinner with family.

Just 15 miles away at another Wal-Mart, another worker was trampled, but not fatally.

Stampede! A travesty, again and again

I don't know why this catches my attention, but I've blogged about human stampedes twice in the past (on my old tribe.net blog here and here), and unfortunately, some new episodes have occured with atrocious numbers of deaths.

2008: 35 die in Indian temple stampede (includes references to other recent events)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080930/ts_nm/us_india_stampede

2007: 7 die in Chinese superstore stampede

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/11/10/supermarket.stampede.ap/index.html

2005: 1,000 die in Baghdad bridge stampede

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baghdad_bridge_stampede

2005: 5 hurt in London IKEA stampede

http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/02/10/ikea.stampede

2004:  3 die in Saudi shop stampede

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3618190.stm

Whenever I'm in the middle of a huge crowd, I'm always wary of which way to escape in case of stampede.