[Lex Computer & Tech Group/LCTG] crowd crush that kills people

[Michael Alexander]

In 1960, shortly after the elections, I was in a small crowd crush.  President-Elect John Kennedy came to Harvard to participate in a meeting of Harvard’s Board of Overseers (he was a member).  The meeting was held in University Hall, in the center of the Harvard Yard; the time was well known to undergraduates and others, who thronged the area.
Kennedy, surrounded by a small group of Secret Service agents, strode into The Yard from a gate near Harvard Square.  Members of the crowd, hoping to get a better look, pressed forward from both sides of the path Kennedy was taking.  My chest was being crushed; I almost couldn’t breathe, as the pressure from behind me inexorably increased and I was compressed into people standing in front of me (I wouldn’t be writing this if I didn’t survive intact).
I feared that Kennedy would be crushed from both sides.  The Secret Service, however, had formed a kind of flying wedge, with Kennedy in its interior; onlookers bounced off the wedge as it moved toward University Hall.  It was amazing.  
Kennedy reached Uni Hall, ascended the stairs, acknowledged the crowd with a few inaudible (from where I stood) words, and entered University Hall.
We members of the crush began to disperse and breathe normally.
    – Mike Alexander
 







On Friday, November 4, 2022, 6:52 PM, john rudy <jjrudy1 at comcast.net> wrote:

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https://www.wired.com/story/how-peaceful-crowds-turn-into-a-deadly-crush/

  

Sophomore year in college we had a tug of war between the freshmen and the sophomores.  Maybe 300-400 on each side.  Used a huge rope, like what is used by barges to pull boats.  The rope broke in the middle and each side thought they were winning.  The people near the ends couldn’t see the middle and they pulled harder.  People in the middle dropped the rope and so about 20’ of rope on each side started swinging.  No one was killed but some were injured by the flying rope.

This was one of the events of Field Day, not the most dangerous.  Some years later MIT canceled Field Day.

  

John Rudy

781-861-0402

781-718-8334 (cell)

John.rudy at alum.mit.edu 

  

13 Hawthorne Lane

Bedford, MA  01730-1047



  
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