Management Plan for Crowd Control

Presented by:

Amrita Ghosh

15552001, DMC

M.Tech, 1st Year

Introduction

• The increasing population of India and the tendency of people to gather for a common objective or interest makes events.

• These public gatherings may include street fairs, public rally, music festival, religious gathering etc.

• A crowd is made up by the clustering of spectators and participants, but in religious congregations the crowd is mostly made up of participants (the devotees).

• Mass gatherings of persons can be defined by the World Health Organization as ‘more than a specified number of persons at a specific location for a specific purpose for a defined period of time’.

• Large crowds create annoyances and difficulties to a section of the society, leading to severe traffic delays, pollution, stampede, fights among people, riots, alteration in landscape and ultimately become the source of medical emergencies and disasters.

• In last few years, India has witnessed many of such events which resulted in large no. of casualties.

Recent Crowd Disasters in India

• Dabwali, Haryana, Dec. 23rd 1995 – Fire at a school function – 446 casualities

• Baripada, Odisha, Feb.24th 1997-Fire at religious congregation - 206

• Uphaar Cinema, Delhi, Jun. 13th 1997 - 59

• Sabarimala stampede, Kerala, Jan.14th 1999 - 52

• Charbaug Railway Station Stairs, Lucknow, Spe.28th 2002 - 19

• Nasik Mahakumbhmela, Maharashtra, Aug.27th 2003 – 29

• Sabarimala stampede, Kerala, Jan.14th 2011 – 102

• Railway Station Allahabad, Feb.10th 2013 – 36

• Ratangarh Datia on bridge, MP, Oct.13th 2013 – 121

• Rajahmundry Stampede, AP, Jul.15th 2015 – 27

• Mumbai Stapede, Jan. 17th 2014 - 18

• Patna Stampede, Oct. 03rd 2014 – Dussehra - 32

PREVENTION OF CROWD DISASTERS BY CROWD MANAGEMENT

• Is a public security practice where large crowds are managed to prevent the outbreak of crowd crushes, affray, fights involving drunken people or riots .

• Crowd crushes can cause in many hundreds of fatalities.

• Crowd control can involve privately hired security guards as well as police officers.

• As crowd disasters are local events, disaster management is primarily the responsibility of the organizers and local/district administration with support and guidelines from state and national authorities.

• A study has been conducted by IIM Ahmedabad and commissioned by NDMA on this.

Prevention of Crowd Disasters by Crowd Management

• Most major crowd disasters can be prevented by simple crowd management strategies.

• The primary crowd management objectives are the avoidance of critical crowd densities and the triggering of rapid group movement.

• Although the terms crowd management and crowd control are often used interchangeably, there are important differences.

• Crowd management is defined as the systematic planning for, and supervision of, the orderly movement and assembly of people.

• Crowd control is the restriction or limitation of group behaviour.

Prevention of Crowd Disasters by Crowd Management

Crowd management

• involves the assessment of the people handling capabilities of a space prior to use.

• It includes evaluation of projected levels of occupancy, adequacy of means of ingress and egress, processing procedures such as ticket collection, and expected types of activities and group behaviour.

Crowd control

• may be part of a crowd management plan, or occur as an unplanned reaction to a group problem.

• It can include extreme measures to enforce order, such as the use of force, arrest, or threat of personal injury.

• It may employ barriers that alter the space available for occupancy and patterns of group movement.

• Inappropriate or poorly managed control procedures have precipitated crowd incidents rather than preventing them. For example, police reacting to a group of unruly persons at a rock concert, herded spectators into areas where there were no means of egress.

Causes and Triggers for Crowd Disasters

• Structural

• Fire/Electricity

• Crowd Control

• Crowd Behaviour

• Security

• Lack of coordination between various stakeholders

Causes and Triggers for Crowd Disasters

Structural collapse

• Structural collapse of barricades or temporary structure.

• Barriers on the way

• Poor guard railings

• Poorly lit stairway, narrow staircase

• Absence of emergency exits

Fire/Electricity

• Wooden structure catching fire

• Fire in makeshift facility or in shop

• Non-availability of fire extinguishers

• Fireworks at enclosed places

• Electricity supply failures

• Illegal electric connections

• Short circuits

Causes and Triggers for Crowd DisastersCrowd control

• More than anticipated crowd at store/mall/political rallies/examinations/religious gatherings, public celebrations.

• Underestimation of audience, staffing, services.

• People allowed in excess of holding capacity due to overselling of tickets for an event.

• Limited holding area before the entrance.

• Lack of access control.

• Closed/Locked exits.

• Sudden opening of entry doors.

• Reliance on one major exit route.

• Uncontrolled parking and movement of vehicles.

• Callous indifference in regulating traffic.

• Lack of adequate and strong railings to marshal the queue.

• Lack of sectoral partition to segregate assembled crowd.

• Lack of proper public address system to control crowd.

Causes and Triggers for Crowd DisastersCrowd behaviour

• A wild rush towards the entrance or exits

• A collision between large inward flow and outward flow.

• Rush during distribution of something

• Angry crowd due to delay in start of an event

• Sudden mass evacuation

• Last minute change in platforms of trains

Security

• Under deployment of security personnel to regulate crowd control

• Lack of CCTV surveillance of the crowd

• Absence of walky-talkies with the security staff

• Fights within groups of people and with security staff

• Lack of door frame metal detectors

• Crowd forced against sharp metal fences

Causes and Triggers for Crowd DisastersLack of coordination between stakeholders

• Coordination gap between agencies (commissioner and DM, PWD, Fire Service etc.)

• Poor infrastructure (plans on paper but no implementation due to lack of funds, resources or will)

• Communication delays

Planning for Crowd management strategies and arrangementsVarious elements of crowd management strategy are:

• Capacity planning (long term and short term)

• Understanding crowd behaviour

• Crowd control

• Stakeholder approach

Planning for Crowd management strategies and arrangements

Capacity Planning:

• In India, religious places have high probability of crowd disasters. Their locations play a major role in this.

• Development of shrine locality could be difficult in many places but it is necessary to develop infrastructure for crowd management.

• There is need for LONG TERM PERSPECTIVES for infrastructure development which should depend upon popularity, periodicity of event, weather, terrain, local population etc.

• Staging points should be planned for physical or virtual locations through which each visitor must pass.

• Each staging point must have sufficient facilities for rest, food, water, hygiene etc.

• Multiple routes should be encouraged. This will help in movement of vulnerable groups ( children and old people).

Planning for Crowd management strategies and arrangements

Understanding Crowd Behaviour:

• Individual behaviour in a crowd is sometimes influenced by the behaviour of others.

• The unlawful actions of some people may result in larger no. following them.

• Therefore it is essential to identify and separate such group of people at the earliest and should be removed.

• Action should be taken with tact and firmness without inviting undue attention of general public.

Stakeholders Approach

• Organisers must rethink crowd control and encourage community stakeholders (NGOs, Neighbourhood societies/Mohalla Association etc.) to take ownership in events for unity of purpose, faster decision/response, better co-ordination , etc.

Crowd Control

• The guiding principle for crowd control should be managing demand-supply gap through:-

i. Controlling the crowd inflow,

ii. Regulating the crowd at the venue,

iii. Controlling the outflow.

Crowd Control

• In order to understand demand we need to understand the:-

i. Historical no., crowd arrival patterns, growing popularity and types of visitors

ii. Identify the mass arrival time windows creating peaks (season, days of the week, time of the day, festivals, holidays etc.)

iii. Advance ticket booking/reservations

iv. Public transport timetables

• In order to understand supply we need to calculate:-

i. The capacity at the venue: seating capacity, worships, offerings or prayers possible per hour

ii. Capacity of holding areas/queue complex

Crowd Control

• At no. of places, demand outstrips supply, leading to overcrowding. Because of this, there is a need for restricting the no. entries.

• A mandatory registration process makes this possible.

• Influencing the arrival is another method, which can be done through :-

i. Informing off-peak times

ii. Having priority queues, visitors with advanced internet bookings, VIP visit during off-peak times

iii. Promote use of certain mode of transport

iv. Adjusting the event time keeping in mind regular peak traffic times around the venue

v. Informing current crowd strength and the expected wait time

Crowd Control• With demand outstripping supply, queues cannot be avoided.

• At no. of places it is impossible to increase the supply capacity because of religious beliefs or the topological reasons.

• In such cases since the wait is unavoidable the only possibility is to make it comfortable.

• Softer aspects of managing queues:-

i. Do not overlook the effects of perceptions of management

ii. Determine the acceptable waiting time for visitors

iii. Install directions that entertain and physically involve the visitors

iv. Get visitors out of line(e-service)

v. Modify visitors arrival behaviour(inform non peak hours)

vi. Keep resources not serving visitors out of sight

vii. Segment visitors(by personality, age, special needs etc. to provide differentiated attention and/or service

Crowd Control• While planning for crowd control following aspects should be kept in mind:

i. Deployment of snake line approach

ii. Generators, distribution boxes, circuit-breakers should be kept in an isolated place away from mischievous crowd elements.

iii. Crowd Control Staff should be uniformly dressed(highly visible)

iv. Crowd Control Staff should be in position to communicate with each other and also to the crowd

v. Make sure there are ample entrances and exits(including administrative/emergency routes) at the event and they remain unobstructed

vi. Monitor crowds

vii. There should be adequate fencing; security and electrical appliances should be protected from weather.

viii. These measures would avoid electric short circuits and electricity-induced fire accidents.

Information ManagementInformation systems for visitors

• Proper briefing by the organizers

• Event route maps

• List of activities

• Map with places of importance

• Typical peak times/days

• Emergency helpline no.

• Registration requirements

• Mode of transportation

During visit

• Do’s & Don'ts to ensure smooth movement of crowd

• Food, water, toilets, police post, information points

• Access to first-aid facilities

• Suitable entry/exits for emergency

• Approx.. waiting time

Information Management

Information organisers should have

• Past data on no. of arrivals

• Likely arrival times, mean of arrival and needs

Documentation for process orientation

• Site panning, master planning

• Processes for identifying hazards

• Processes for managing hazards

• Key contacts

• Time and motion studies to determine holding capacity

Information Management

Information for security personnel

• Detailed maps showing entry/ exit, holding areas, location of emergency services.

• Evacuation and response plans

Signage

• Type of sign information, Wording and language specification

• Size and dimension and location

THANK YOU