A couple of notable tragedies took place over the long weekend, where 150 died in the Philippines due to Severe Tropical Storm Paeng (international name: Nalgae); and 156 lives were lost in a crowd crush in the Itaewon neighborhood in Seoul, South Korea.
Let’s start with the more shocking one, the Itaewon Halloween crowd crush.
On October 29, a Saturday evening, as many as 100,000 people, mostly in their teens and 20s, poured into Itaewon’s narrow, sloping streets for one of its first major celebrations since COVID restrictions were lifted.
The crowd grew as the night deepened, and just after 10pm, chaos erupted on a narrow, steep side street near Itaewon station. Witnesses reported seeing crowds surging in different directions and people losing their footing on the slope, causing a domino effect in the already packed crowd. People fell and knocked others down, piling one person on to another.
At the end, 156 lives were lost in what was described as a crowd crush, which can happen when there is the combination of overcrowded and unmanaged crowds and wide paths filtering into narrow ones.
According to theguardian.com, a crowd crush can occur when too many people push into a confined area – either on the way in, or trying to get out. People can be squeezed to such an extent that they can no longer inflate their lungs, and are at risk of compressive asphyxiation.
Experts say crowd crush disasters usually involve three interlinked factors: overcrowding, waves or movement in an already extremely dense crowd, and crowd collapse. Many believe those factors were all present in Itaewon. The crowd was very dense, waves of people most likely lifted people in the crowd off their feet, and in such a situation, small movements can ripple through the crowd and cause further pressure. If someone falls, a crowd collapse can be triggered and people can fall over and others can fall on top of them.
What makes the problem worse is that those entering the crowd are oblivious to the impending danger. They can’t see how dense it already is at front and usually try to make their way into the crowd, where all the fun is assumed to be.
While the word “stampede” has been tossed around, it was pointed out that it is not only an incorrect term, but also a loaded word that apportions blame to the victims for behaving in an irrational, self-destructive, unthinking and uncaring manner, crowd behavior expert Prof Edwin Galea explained in the article. He added that describing it as a stampede is ignorant and lazy as it gives the impression that it was a mindless crowd only caring about themselves.
That is not the case in a crowd crush, as it is the authorities are usually to blame for poor planning, design, control, policing and mismanagement.
What happened in Itaewon is unlikely to happen here in Negros, where while we may have slum areas, there are no narrow alleyways that are potential attractions for partygoers and large crowds. However, it is a grim reminder of how important proper planning, crowd control and management is when organizing el grande events like our very own MassKara festival. The authorities responsible in Seoul have already taken responsibility and will be held accountable for their roles and shortcomings in the disaster, and we can be sure that they will take all the precautions to prevent it from happening again, but for those who us who watched it unfold from a few thousand kilometers away, that crowd crush incident should serve as a warning on how these dangerous situations should be totally preventable.
On the local front, our country got absolutely battered by Typhoon Paeng, and based on the hefty death toll, it looks like we were totally unprepared yet again for it. Unlike the Itaewon crowd crush that nobody really expected and prepared for, Filipinos come face-to-face with many a powerful tropical storm every year. And yet, a staggering 150 Filipinos still died as Paeng ravaged the country. At this point, it’s hard to tell if Paeng was extra deadly or government is extra careless.
As usual, our president thought that the tally of deaths and missing persons “are a little too high.” Whether his team will be doing something about it so it doesn’t happen again the next time a relatively strong typhoon visits us (which could be a few more times before the year ends), remains to be seen.
If you come to think of it, the Itaewon crowd crush is not likely to be repeated, given the quality of South Korea’s government that has shown its ability to be accountable and learn the lessons of this rare but preventable tragedy. As for the Philippines that already has vast experience in dealing with typhoons, it seems that Filipinos can’t be assured that death tolls like Paeng’s are going to become a thing of the past. Our government has yet to show its ability to take these disasters seriously and learn the necessary lessons because of its people who have been bailing it out regularly with our legendary “resilience”.
It may be a good idea to closely observe how the Filipino and South Korean governments respond to these disasters that took approximately the same number of lives in both countries over the course of the weekend.*
