19 dead at love parade

Postby Fesselfan » Mon Jul 26, 2010 2:12 am

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
There are 10 kind of people in the world.
Those who understand binary numeral system, and those who don't.

Re: 19 dead at love parade

Postby Chris12 » Mon Jul 26, 2010 6:06 am

I heard about it its consantly in the news.
There are rumors of a dutch victim(don't know if its true) and it has coused quite a commotion in my country.

Your right i hope that they make the idiot who caused this rot in jail!

Re: 19 dead at love parade

Postby Fesselfan » Mon Jul 26, 2010 6:10 am

@chris yes, from the limited information avaiable at the moment (mostly some German news sites) there was in fact one victim coming from the Netherlands.
There are 10 kind of people in the world.
Those who understand binary numeral system, and those who don't.

Re: 19 dead at love parade

Postby Boundgal08 » Mon Jul 26, 2010 6:45 am

I heard about this FF! I heard it on the news and on MSN homepage, it is truly sad what happened.
BOUNDGIRL!
Probably the kinkiest woman you will ever meet!
I am a switch, I like to put a man in ropes and also have a man put me in ropes!
I am the 'Queen of bondage'

Re: 19 dead at love parade

Postby Chris12 » Mon Jul 26, 2010 12:26 pm

Many people seem to blame the major for the accident because wanted the love parade to take place in his town no matter the cost and so overlooked a couple of safety warnings.

I don't know how much blame the man has but most people hate him now they even trowed things at him!

Re: 19 dead at love parade

Postby Fesselfan » Tue Jul 27, 2010 10:59 pm

I don't know if he is solely to blame. My bet is -not. However, in my eyes a part of the blame goes to him, another one surely to the festival leadership.
Currently, everything is still under investigation and a lot of what is reported in the press is hearsay.
But certain facts seem to emerge out of the mist:
A lot of people have warned about the location. And not some random nerds on the internet- but even officials in catastrophe management organisations, who (in memos to, among others. the mayor) refused to take any responsibility for a safe happening.
Last year, the love parade should have been held in Bochum (if you know the area, that's a city with similar problems)- and finally, they refused to hold the festival and cancelled it, for safety reasons. Many people where mad at them back then, but now one can only congratulate the responsible persons there...that they didn't put prestige gain above public safety.
I still imagine in my eyes how the mayor and festival leaders would now celebrate themselves in public if everything had went ok. Maybe this vision made them disregard any concerns, I don't know.
But I can fully understand that a lot of people are mad at him, especially the ones who lost dear people there.

BTW, in a bright moment, the mayor decided not to attend the funeral ceremony for the victims. IMHO the first wise decision he took...

FF

For the statistic: another injured one could not be saved, so now the death toll reached a sad 20. Newer reports now claim 500 injured in total..
There are 10 kind of people in the world.
Those who understand binary numeral system, and those who don't.