On women & children being first in emergency situations

[WolverineDG]

As I stated in an earlier post, the high school I attended was gassed as a senior prank, causing th eentiire school of over 3000 people to empty in minutes. Thanks to years of fire drills, we all knew where the nearest exits were, but we definitely did NOT proceed in a calm,single file. More like a pack of stampeding cattle. It was "every man for himself," even among the faculty (with a few exceptions). A friend of mine fell & couldn't get up (some guy eventually picked her up by her pants and tossed her away from the crowd so she could stand up again. I was slammed against a metal door divider & for what seemed an eternity, kept getting slammed against it. No one, not even the coaches , had the presence of mind to grab my arm & pull me outside with them. I don't blame them. Maybe they did think they needed to do something, but couldn't because the crowd was packed too tightly.

Anyway what I learned that day was the difference between theory & application. I don't fault the normal passengers for not living up to the noble ideal, but I do fault the captain& officers who are TRAINED how to act in emergency situations. Just thought you'd like to hear from someone who's been there & done that.

[snagglepuss]

1. A number of years ago either a 20/20 or Dateline ran a story about human

stampedes and what to do if you find yourself in one. I believe they said that people have to keep moving with the crowd, and perhaps that's why no one stopped to help you. It's odd that I have only ever seen one program deal with this subject, people really do need to know what to do if caught in a surge of people.

[WolverineDG]

3. Yeah, I know that.

They probably thought "hey, I need to help that person" but couldn't. Even if they had thought to reach out & grab me, their own arms were kind of locked into position at their sides.

A kind of funny story in this incident involves a friend of mine who was (still is) quite short. She swears her feet didn't touch the ground once she hit the hallway...the crowd was packed so tightly in the hall where she was, she was literally lifted up & "carried" out the door.

[SecurityManager]

2. I do fault the captain & officers who are TRAINED how to act in emergency

Exactly!

[treestar]

4. We were trained in our school

By fire drills. No excuse for your school not doing that. You go single file - people need to practice that.

[Liberal_in_LA]

5. Rhode Island nightclub fire 2003 - 96 dead. They were jammed in the doorway.

[Honeycombe8]

6. We do have a history of ship sinkings and other disasters to know...

what captains and crews are supposed to do, and usually do. So even in a free for all rush in an emergency, we know that captains and crews and pilots usually remain cool and follow protocol. They're trained, and I supposed they have that type of leadership personality that drew them to have that job in the first place.

Heck, on the Titanic one or more of the guys in the engine room went down with the ship, still trying to keep her afloat in the face of all odds. Doing their duty.

And there are always cowards in a crowd. I guess emergencies bring out the best and worst of people.

[Remember Me]

7. What a terrible experience

I'm so sorry you had to go through that! Yuck!