Rules for safe behavior in an uncontrollable crowd. Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Education "Belgorod State Technological University named after. V.G. Shukhova. Characteristics of the crowd and types of mass gatherings

Living in a modern big city, a person often finds himself in places mass gathering people. A large public often gathers at parades and processions, at concerts and performances by pop stars, at sports matches, during various events and political speeches, in clubs, subways, and at public transport stops.

The danger of a crowd does not always manifest itself immediately. People love to get together. But a cheerful, noisy company or mass gathering does not always have a positive attitude. Danger of crowds lies in its spontaneity, unpredictability and power of influence on each individual individually.

In order to return from the next event without bruises or fractures, you need to know basic principles crowd behavior and safe behavior in crowds.

Rules of conduct in a crowd

• Avoid large crowds of people.
• Don't join the crowd, no matter how much you want to watch the events taking place.
• If you find yourself in a place where there is a mass gathering of people, calculate your retreat moves in advance and stay as close to them as possible. The most dangerous places to avoid during the general flight: the area near the stage and near the dressing rooms, narrow passages and places next to glass display cases.
• If you find yourself in a crowd, try to get out of it.
• If the crowd begins to move, try to move with everyone else, with the flow, especially not against or across the main mass. Try not to be pushed to the center, where there is pressure from all sides, and it will be very difficult to get out of there. You also need to be not on the very edge, where you are in danger of being pressed against a wall or fence. Do not grab handrails, railings, or various objects; you will not have enough strength to hold on to them, and your hands may be seriously injured.
• Try to be away from tall and large people, people with bulky objects and large bags.
• Inhale deeply and spread your arms bent at the elbows slightly to the sides so that your chest is not compressed.
• Try to stay on your feet by any means necessary.
• Don't keep your hands in your pockets.
• When moving, raise your legs as high as possible, place your foot on your full foot, do not mince, do not rise on tiptoes.
• If the crush has become threatening, immediately, without hesitation, free yourself from any burden, first of all, from a bag with a long belt and a scarf.
• If you drop something, never bend down to pick it up.
• If you fall, try to get back to your feet as quickly as possible. At the same time, do not lean on your hands (they will be crushed or broken). Try to stand on your soles or toes for at least a moment. Having found support, “surface”, sharply pushing off the ground with your feet.
• If you can’t get up, curl up in a ball, protect your head with your forearms, and cover the back of your head with your palms.
• Once in a room crowded with people, determine in advance which places are the most dangerous in the event of an extreme situation (passages between sectors in a stadium, glass doors and partitions in concert halls, etc.), pay attention to emergency and emergency exits, mentally make the path to him.
• It is easiest to hide from the crowd in the corners of the hall or near the walls, but it is more difficult to get from there to the exit.
• If panic occurs, try to maintain calm and the ability to soberly assess the situation.
• Do not join the protesters “just for fun.” First, find out whether the rally is authorized and what the people speaking are campaigning for.
• Do not join unregistered organizations. Participation in events of such organizations may result in criminal penalties.
• During riots, try not to get into the crowd, both participants and spectators. You may fall under the action of special forces soldiers.
• If police or troops are trying to control a crowd of people, do not run towards them, trying to find help or explain your innocence. In this situation, it is difficult for them to determine who is right and who is wrong, and they can use force against you.

Being in modern society, living in a big city, it is not so difficult to find yourself in a crowded place. A large public often gathers at parades and processions, at concerts and performances by pop stars, during various events and political speeches, in clubs, subways, and at public transport stops. The danger of a crowd does not always manifest itself immediately. People love to get together, jostle, shout slogans, and sing songs. But a cheerful, noisy company or a mass gathering does not always have a favorable mood.

Dangers of crowds and crowded places

The danger of a crowd lies in its spontaneity and the power of influence on each individual. In order to return from the next event without bruises or fractures, let’s look at the basic principles of crowd behavior and safe behavior in a crowd.

Characteristics of crowds and types of mass gatherings

Despite the attempts of scientists to explain the phenomenon of mass gatherings of people, all the nuances of the behavior and characteristics of the crowd have not been established. One thing is clear - the crowd averages people, that is, it makes people similar, be it a banker, a housewife or an ordinary hooligan. For a mass gathering of people there is no difference - everyone becomes on the same level. Having gathered in a crowd, people cease to be separate individuals and turn into a single organism, driven by an incomprehensible and unpredictable force. The main characteristic of the crowd is that it begins to live on its own, acquires its own character, its own style of behavior. There is something animalistic about it - a herd feeling, attack by a pack, collective defense against aggression.

Having gathered in a crowd, people cease to be separate individuals and turn into a single organism, driven by an incomprehensible and unpredictable force. Photo: popsci.com

In total, sociologists and psychologists distinguish three types of mass gatherings of people. The first is a passive crowd, they also say “herd”. This type of crowd can be formed in a place where there is a large gathering of people: at a train station, at an exhibition, in a queue at a shopping mall, at a transport stop. All the people ended up there by accident and the crowd formed by them does not carry active actions. However, like any large gathering of people, it has a deeply embedded active potential. As soon as an event occurs that will affect a certain part of the cluster, people, bound by one desire, will begin to act as a single crowd.

Active type of crowd of people. It differs from a passive crowd of people in that this large group of people already carries charged emotions. That is, people came to this place specifically to support someone or express their attitude to an idea or an ongoing event in the world. People, being in a crowd of active people, support each other and are ready for real collective action. They, it seems to them, act for a common goal, together. The catalyst for action can be an external influence, for example, news just received or a speech from a person from the podium, or an internal process.

Active type of crowd of people. It differs from a passive crowd of people in that this large group of people already carries charged emotions. Photo: Global News, BBC

The active type of mass gathering of people is a crowd at the time of a catastrophe or crash. This reaction of people makes it very difficult to manage. During times of danger and threat to life, a person’s consciousness narrows, the ability to think sensibly fades into the background, only reflexes, automatisms, and thoughtless physical actions manifest themselves.

The third type of crowd characteristic is aggressive. For a mass gathering of people, an aggressive type of behavior is the result of pre-planned actions of the event organizers, or a consequence of the development of an active crowd. An aggressive crowd of people can be called a crowd of looters, when, during a period of general weakening of self-awareness, the thirst for profit takes precedence over reason and the fear of being caught.

Rules for safe behavior in crowds

How, if you find yourself in an active and aggressive environment, leave a crowded place without injury? Experienced experts recommend following certain rules of behavior.

1. The main rule of safe behavior in a crowd is to avoid crowded places.
2. You don't have to come to events alone. Close people will always come to the rescue first.
3. You need to carefully consider the clothes you wear to the event. It is not advisable to wear loose dresses, robes or clothes with laces or strings. Earrings and piercings are best left at home. Do not wear ties, scarves, chains, beads or anything else that may be on your neck. Clothes should be tight-fitting - fasten all buttons or zippers, check that your shoes are laced, it is advisable for women not to wear heels.
4. The level of crowd activity and the consequences of its actions directly depend on the amount of alcohol consumed. In addition, a smuggled glass bottle becomes a dangerous weapon in the hands of a hooligan. A person intoxicated cannot restrain his aggression, further irritating people around him, and in the event of a threat to his life, he himself will not be able to adequately defend himself.
5. If you find yourself in a place where there is a mass gathering of people, calculate your retreat moves in advance and stay as close to them as possible. The most dangerous places to avoid during the general flight: the area near the stage and near the dressing rooms, narrow passages and being near glass display cases.
6. If you feel that the situation at the gathering place is heating up and there is nowhere to run. Show off your acting skills: pretend to have a heart attack or vomit. People themselves will part and form a corridor around you through which you can leave the dangerous place. The best behavior in the event of danger is to calm down and make a sober decision. Sometimes it only takes ten seconds to look around, find a safe path and escape.
7. If the crowd begins to move, try to move with everyone else, with the flow, especially not against or across the main mass. Try not to push you to the center, where there is pressure from all sides and it will be very difficult to get out of there. You also need to be not on the very edge, where you are in danger of being pressed against a wall or fence. Do not grab handrails, railings; you will not have enough strength to hold on to various objects, and your hands may be seriously injured.
8. If events in a crowded place have already taken on an aggressive character, then forget about the fallen things. Reaching for a fallen object puts you at risk of falling and being trampled or injured. People running for their lives won't even notice you.
9. If you find yourself tightly squeezed into a crowd, then remember, you will not fall, but the danger of being crushed by the mass of bodies is quite real. The most vulnerable places in this case are the ribs, stomach, and chest. To avoid being squeezed from the sides, bend your elbows and press them to your sides, tense all your muscles. And thus follow in the crowd until the situation improves and you can move to the exit.
10. If you fall, try to rise to your feet with a sharp leap; in this situation, you should not disdain anything - cling to people, clothes. If this did not work out and the crowd continues to trample you while you are lying down, then you need to take the fetal position - curl up in a ball, press your chin to your chest, knees to your head, cover your head with your hands. All that was left was to wait out the stream of people and go to the first aid station.
11. If police or troops are trying to disperse a crowd of people, do not run towards them, trying to find help or explain your innocence. At this moment, no one will understand it, but it is very possible to get hit with a baton.

Your actions in the crowd, briefly:

• Never walk against the movement of a crowd of people.
• Crowd plan - stay close to the edge, watch out for handrails, corners and steps.
• If you drop something (bag, jacket or umbrella), do not try to pick it up - it could cost you your life.
• Do not take active actions in a crowd - do not cling with your hands, they may be broken.
• Try to button your jacket, bend your elbows, press them to your body and gradually get out.
• If you fall, immediately cover your head with your hands and try to stand up quickly.

A number of researchers believe that the crowd is a special biological organism. It operates according to its own laws and does not always take into account the interests of individual components, including their safety.

Very often, a crowd becomes more dangerous than the natural disaster or accident that created it. However, she does not look for alternative solutions and does not see the consequences of her decision, sometimes the main ones, as in a typical case of fires: jumping from a doomedly high height. A crowd can form in many cases, including when committing terrorist actions.
A crowd can be stopped by categorical commands, an ardent conviction that there is no danger, and even the threat of shooting alarmists, as well as a strong emotional brake or a miracle. It is among miracles that one should include cases when a strong-willed person, enjoying the trust of those gathered, managed to prevent the dramatic development of events.
Many special instructions strongly recommend physical suppression of the instigator of panic. Because it is immeasurably easier to stop the beginning psychological fire than to stop the crowd that has started to move.
The leader immediately needs to find assistants who must “cut through the crowd,” sometimes literally - holding hands and chanting.
The basic psychological picture of the crowd looks like this:
Decreased intellectual level and increased emotional level.
A sharp increase in suggestibility and a decrease in the ability to think individually.
The crowd requires a leader or an object of hatred. She will gladly obey or destroy.
The crowd is capable of both terrible cruelty and self-sacrifice, including towards the leader himself.
The crowd quickly runs out of steam after achieving something. People divided into groups quickly come to their senses and change their behavior and assessment of what is happening.
In the life of a street (especially political-social) crowd, elements such as the first stone in a shop window and first blood are very important. These steps can take the crowd to a fundamentally different level of danger, where collective irresponsibility turns every member of the crowd into a criminal. You need to leave such a crowd immediately.
How to survive in a crowd? The best rule is to go far around it!!! If this is not possible, do not go against the crowd under any circumstances. If you get carried away by the crowd, try to avoid both the center and the edge. Avoid anything stationary on the way, otherwise you might just get crushed. Do not cling to anything with your hands, they may break. If possible, buckle up. High heels can cost you your life, just like an untied shoelace. Throw away your bag, umbrella, etc.
If something falls (anything), do not try to pick it up - life is more valuable. In a dense crowd, if you behave correctly, the likelihood of falling is not as great as the likelihood of being crushed. Therefore, protect the diaphragm with your hands clasped, folded over your chest. Pushes from behind should be taken on the elbows, the diaphragm should be protected by tension of the arms.
The main task in the crowd is not to fall. But if you do fall, you need to protect your head with your hands and get up immediately. This is very difficult, but it can be done if you use this technique: quickly pull your legs towards you, group yourself and try to stand up with a jerk. It is unlikely that you will be able to rise from your knees in a dense crowd - you will be constantly knocked down. Therefore, you need to rest one foot (full sole) on the ground and sharply straighten up, using the movement of the crowd. But, nevertheless, it is very difficult to get up; preliminary protective measures are always more effective.
This universal rule, by the way, fully applies to the beginning of the “crowd” situation itself. At a concert or stadium, figure out in advance how you will exit (not necessarily the same way you entered). Try not to be near the stage, dressing room, etc. - in the “center of events”. Avoid walls (especially glass), partitions, and mesh. The tragedy at the stadium in Sheffield (England) showed that most of the dead were crushed by the crowd on the barrier walls.
If panic began due to a terrorist attack, do not rush to aggravate the chaos with your movement: do not deprive yourself of the opportunity to assess the situation and make the right decision.
To do this, use auto-training and express relaxation techniques. Here are simple techniques from which you need to choose the ones that are closest to you.
Even breathing helps to keep your behavior even. Take a few breaths in and out.
Look at something blue or imagine a rich blue background. Think about this for a second.
To bring down the beginning emotional confusion, you can address yourself by name (preferably out loud), for example: “Kolya, are you here?” And confidently answer yourself: “Yes, I’m here!!!”
Imagine yourself as a television camera, looking at everything a little from the side and from above. Assess your situation as an outsider: what would you do if you were this person?
Change your sense of scale. Look at the eternal clouds. Smile forcefully, knock down fear with an unexpected thought or memory.
If the crowd is dense but motionless, you can try to get out of it using psychosocial techniques, for example, pretending to be sick, drunk, crazy, pretending to be sick, and so on. In short, you need to force yourself to maintain composure, be informed and improvise.

Many of you probably like to attend noisy public events. These include holiday concerts, football matches, and fairs. As a rule, there are a lot of people present at such events. — a set of measures to help maintain safety in crowded places. The Country of Soviets will give several recommendations that will help you avoid troubles and accidents in the crowd.

When people attend a concert or any other holiday event, they tend to act calm and peaceful, looking forward to having a good time. At the same time, without rushing, they politely let each other through at the entrance. And as soon as this event ends, everyone immediately leaves their seats and quickly moves towards the exit. As a rule, this results in a large influx of people and a traffic jam forms. It also happens that the movement of people changes from orderly to spontaneous.

There have been cases in history when spontaneous crowded stampedes killed a large number of people. A striking example of such tragedies is the coronation of Nicholas II, when a crowd of thousands moved to the place where refreshments were distributed on Khodynskoye Field. Then, in the stampede, several thousand people suffered and died. In the people's memory, Stalin's funeral was also imprinted by the monstrous stampede on Trubnaya Square - not only people died in the stampede, but also the horses on which the police were sitting.

To protect yourself and your loved ones from unpleasant surprises and injuries, you need to learn a few simple but important rules of behavior in a crowd.

• If a crowd forms at the normal end of an event, it is usually peaceful. In that case it's better to just wait it out, when its density is discharged, the flow of people will subside, and it is already safe to leave the half-empty territory. If you are in a hurry, it is better to go to the exit in advance and leave first immediately after the end of the holiday show.
• If you suddenly find yourself in a tightly compressed crowd - don't resist the movement, try to move away from the center, but don’t walk completely along the edge, while trying to avoid protruding objects, pillars, columns, glass display cases, and standing strollers or cabinets. And don’t grab them under any circumstances.
• Following the rules of behavior in a crowd, don't take it take with you to crowded events a large amount of money and valuables.
• Shoes should be comfortable, tight-fitting, and women should wear flat shoes.
• If you dropped something, then don't bend over to pick it up. People following you may trip over you and fall on top of you.
• on you there should be no sharp objects(brooches, protruding hairpins), you should also not wear a tie or neck scarf.
• Preferably do not take children into crowds of people, and if you find yourself with a child, then take him in your arms or around his neck. Explain to your child in advance, depending on his age, what to do if he gets lost. A small child should know his first and last name, his parents’ names and address, and as soon as his parents are discovered missing, he should loudly call for help. Discuss with an older child a place where you will meet if you lose sight of each other. The child must learn the rules of behavior in a crowd by heart.
• We also advise you know by heart one or two mobile phone numbers of your loved ones in case you lost your phone in a crowd, and suddenly you have the opportunity to call and inform your family about your whereabouts or arrange a meeting in a certain place.

People come to holiday events with a certain mood, wanting to enjoy what they see and hear, or just to communicate. No one even suspects that sometimes enchanting celebrations can be remembered not only for their bright colors, but also for an accident or unexpected tragedy. Therefore, the Land of Soviets advises you remember these simple rules of behavior in a crowd and wishes to never get into unpleasant situations.

Rules for behavior in indoor crowds.

In a confined space (at a concert or other public event), when danger arises, people suddenly begin to simultaneously seek salvation, i.e., they want to get out of this room. In the vast majority of cases, this happens chaotically. People who are far from exits become especially active. They begin to push with all their might on those in front, and as a result, most of the “front” find themselves pressed against the walls. A stampede ensues, as a result of which, in a very real sense, many people can find themselves (and find themselves) crushed between a stone wall and a wall of human bodies.
Once in a crowded room, determine in advance which places are the most dangerous in the event of an emergency (passages between sectors in a stadium, glass doors and partitions in concert halls, etc.), pay attention to emergency exits. Mentally make your way to them, because those who know where the nearest exit is are more likely to escape. It is especially important to rush to the exit before the crowd begins to move. However, when the crowd has gained full strength, attempting to move through its thickness can have the most negative consequences. Experts believe that the most reasonable thing to do is to wait until the main flow subsides. In their opinion, rushing into narrow passages when the crowd has already gained strength is permissible only in the event of a fire, which also spreads very quickly, or when, as a result of extensive combustion of plastic materials and coatings in the hall, a “gas chamber” is formed.

You have to watch out for walls and narrow doorways. To do this you need to try:
. get into the “main stream”, which, however, is also unsafe;
. go back a little, where it’s still more free;
. try to lie on top of the stream of people and, rolling or crawling on your bellies, make your way to a less crowded place. This is especially true when saving children: often this technique is the only hope. A child simply cannot survive in a maddened crowd of adults, if only due to his size. Therefore, if you have the strength, it is better to put the child on your shoulders and move on. Or two adults can, facing each other, create a kind of protective capsule for the child from their bodies and hands.
. If it is impossible to wait, then rush into the crowd, but headlong, but at the same time, in advance, you must empty your pockets as much as possible (even better - completely), since almost any object under enormous pressure in the middle of the crowd can cause serious injury not only to yourself, but and any of the people around you.
. It is necessary to take off long, too loose clothing, which is also equipped with metal parts, as well as anything that can compress the neck, i.e. jacket lacing, tie, medallion on a cord, pectoral cross on a chain, any jewelry and costume jewelry. The arms should not be pressed to the body, they should be bent at the elbows, the fists pointing upward, then the arms can protect the chest. You can also clasp your palms in front of your chest.
. If you drop something, never bend down to pick it up.

. If you fall, try to get back to your feet as quickly as possible. At the same time, do not lean on your hands (they will be crushed or broken). Try to stand on your soles or toes for at least a moment. Having found support, “surface”, sharply pushing off the ground with your feet.
. If you can’t get up, curl up in a ball, protect your head with your forearms, and cover the back of your head with your palms.
. It is easiest to hide from the crowd in the corners of the hall or near the walls, but it is more difficult to get from there to the exit.
. If panic occurs, try to maintain calm and the ability to soberly assess the situation.