Can the word ‘stampede’ undermine crowd safety?
The Oxford Dictionary of English defines Stampede as:
- a sudden panicked rush of a number of horses, cattle, or other animals: the herd was fleeing back to the high land in a wild stampede.
- a sudden rapid movement or reaction of a mass of people in response to a particular circumstance or stimulus: a stampede of bargain hunters.
The Cambridge Dictionary defines Stampede as:
- an occasion when many large animals or many people suddenly all move quickly and in an uncontrolled way, usually in the same direction at the same time, especially because of fear
Merriam-Webster defines Stampede as:
- a wild headlong rush of frightened animals
- a mass movement of people at a common impulse
And finally, the Collins Dictionary definition is:
- a group of people or animals run in a wild, uncontrolled way.
When I think of 'stampede', I think of The Lion King, and the scene (I can no longer watch) where Simba loses Mufasa. I think of Fawlty Towers, where Basil is trying to understand Mrs. Richard's heightened expectations of a view, citing "herds of wildebeests sweeping majestically across the plain". Finally, I recall the asthmatic rhino at the back of the mass chaos through the town centre in Jumanji.
Is this what humans do?
Stampedes and Crowds
The word 'stampede' is often used to describe various forms of crowd incidents including crushing, crowd collapse, crowd turbulence, or evacuation due to fire, explosion, attack or infrastructure failure. While its definition might be closely applicable to scenarios of emergency evacuation, its narrative does not match scenarios such as;
