Why Crowd Crushes Happen Before Anyone Realises
A crowd crush is not caused by panic. It is caused by density. When more than six people occupy a single square metre, the pressure waves moving through the crowd become strong enough to lift people off their feet and compress chests against the will of the person breathing. The crowd does not need to run. It only needs to be dense enough, and then one small push from the back travels forward as a wave that no one at the front can absorb. Understanding this changes what you watch for. You are not looking for screaming or stampeding. You are looking for density and compression long before either of those arrives.
