Safety

Designing for crowd control
Posted by lee from cleveland, OH, US on June 3, 2009

Hello Lanny. I see OSHA recently came out with a pronouncement on the incident at a Wal-Mart wherein an employee was crushed to death. There is even a YouTube-type video proporting to show the scene:

http://www.wikio.com/video/647050

But the OSHA ruling creates more questions than it answers. How could Wal-Mart be expected to “implement effective crowd management to protect its employees.” What did OSHA have in mind, cattle prods? Tasers? Or something else?

Thus, the general question, how does one design for crowd control? Below is the OSHA notice on Wal-Mart.

OSHA Cites Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Following Crushing Death of Worker

OSHA has cited Wal-Mart Stores Inc. for inadequate crowd management following the November 28, 2008, death of an employee at its Valley Stream, New York, store. The worker died of asphyxiation after he was knocked to the ground and trampled by a crowd of about 2,000 shoppers who surged into the store for its annual “Blitz Friday” pre-holiday sales event.

OSHA’s inspection found that the store’s employees were exposed to being crushed by the crowd due to the store’s failure to implement reasonable and effective crowd management principles. This failure includes providing employees with the necessary training and tools to safely manage the large crowd of shoppers.

“This was an unusual situation but not an unforeseen one,” said Anthony Ciuffo, OSHA’s acting area director for Long Island. “The store should have recognized, based on prior “Blitz Friday” experiences, the need to implement effective crowd management to protect its employees.”

As a result, OSHA has issued Wal-Mart one serious citation under its general duty clause for exposing workers to the recognized hazard of being crushed by the crowd. The citation carries a proposed fine of $7,000, the maximum penalty amount for a serious violation allowed under the law. OSHA issues serious citations when death or serious physical harm is likely to result from hazards about which the employer knew or should have known.

“Effective planning and crowd management could have prevented this incident and its grave consequences,” said Robert Kulick, OSHA’s regional administrator in New York. “Wal-Mart must now take steps to ensure that a situation such as this one never happens again.”