Hi all!
As you may have heard (or not), on saturday the love parade (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_Parade) took place in duisburg/germany.
19 people died during a human crush, approx. 350 were injured (a lot of them quite heavy).
A lot of people here know me- I don't easily fly of the handle. However, what happened there really makes me mad! During the last love parades, 1 to 1.6 million people attended the event. The area this time was fitted for only a fith(!) of that amount. Plus, the entry to the area was...unsuitable doesn't even fit it.
To give you an impression, look at this picture:
http://www.n-tv.de/img/11/1127246/O_100 ... 730314.jpg
The tunnel you can see running from the bottom of the pic to the top was entered from both sides- the ramp roughly in the middle was the *only* entry AND exit point for the entire area, everything else was gated! There was no place people could go or flee to in case something happens. Plus...on the ramp was the turnstile, too.
Sorry, but how stupid is that?
Just to give you an impression how it looked like on saturday...take a loot at this picture, taken at the entry ramp:
http://www.wdr.de/themen/panorama/unfal ... ml?pbild=1
Before the event, many people have warned...local police, fireman, experienced festival visitors...however, the local politicans and the festival makers would hear non of them. Now 19 people are dead. To me, this is not an accident which can be blamed on "higher powers" or "bad circumstances". It is (at least!) clear negligence, willingly accept that a catostrophe can happen. Have some local politicans been blinded by the prestige this event could give their little city? Just to give you an impression...that city has around 500 thousand residents and has very dense building areas. 1.5 Million people there? Plus stages, trucks and so on?
Sorry...but my anger is still there, I had to get this of my chest.
My condolescences go to all relatives and friends of those who died...to the injured, I hope you will recover...to all who suffered mental traumas, I hope you will one day get over it.
And to the people responsible: I hope you will rot in prison for this!
Sorry, this time no cheers as I usually subscribe my postings, I don't feel like cheering
Edit: some more pics of the events:http://www.tagesschau.de/multimedia/bilder/massenpanik112_mtb-1_pos-1.html#colsStructure