Word: wals
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...could you know something like that would happen?" one worker told the New York Times. "No one expected something like that." But for people who study crowd crushes, there was nothing surprising about what happened at Wal-Mart. It was reminiscent of many tragedies that have come before, at soccer stadiums, concerts and Ikea stores, which only makes it more awful. "We know exactly how crowds work," says G. Keith Still, a crowd management expert who has helped plan high-density events around the world, including the annual pilgrimage of Muslims to Mecca in Saudi Arabia. There is, he says...
...investigation into the death of Jdimytai Damour, 34, is ongoing, and now that the lawsuits have begun (Damour's family has sued Wal-Mart, Green Acres Mall and other companies connected to the event), the major players have gone dark. The family's attorney, Jordan Hecht, did not return a call requesting comment, and a Wal-Mart spokesperson said he could not elaborate beyond the vague statements the company has already made...
Police have said that the Wal-Mart incident may have happened after people who were waiting in their cars tried to rush the doors, past people who had been waiting outside...
...front, so they continue to press forward. The compounding pressure can bend steel like it's made of rubber. "It only takes five people to push against one to break a rib, collapse a lung or smash a child's head," says Still. Most stampede victims (including the Wal-Mart worker) die of asphyxiation - they literally cannot breathe due to the pressure of the crowd...
...incident on Black Friday. "Disney World does this every day," notes Nassau County Police Commissioner Lawrence Mulvey. "People aren't inherently interested in hurting each other." But managing crowds is not something people do well without knowledge and training. Mulvey says that his department met with local retailers, including Wal-Mart, two weeks before Black Friday to remind them that they needed to provide their own security. "We patrol the parking lot, the exteriors, but each individual store is responsible for their own security," says Det. Sgt. Anthony Repalone. "We can't be at every retail store, especially on Black...