Cusat stampede: Poor crowd management led to mishap, says witness
KOCHI: It was nothing short of a miracle that saw Aravind K S, a third-year integrated MSc student of Cusat, escape the stampede at the Techfest that was organised by Cusat’s School of Engineering (SOE) in the auditorium on the campus on Saturday.
As per Aravind, the tragedy that led to the death of two girls and two boys was the result of a failure in controlling the crowd.
“I was standing right next to the gate that leads into the auditorium,” said Aravind. The programme was to begin at 6.45 pm. Inside the auditorium, the technicians were trying out the sound systems. “At that time the volunteers, mostly students of SOE, were slowly letting the students inside. However, after some time when it was around 7 pm, somebody suddenly opened the gate completely. As such a large crowd of students had been pushing on the gate, the total effect was that those standing in the front side were pushed ahead and they lost their footing resulting in them tripping and falling on the steps leading to the auditorium,” he added.
The crowd rushed inside trampling upon those who had fallen on the steps, said Aravind. “I got pushed but managed not to fall. It was mostly girls who were standing in the front row and they were the ones who had fallen.
A lot of students sustained injuries as they were trampled upon by the surging crowd,” he said.
“The crowd comprised mainly of second and third-year students. Also, the programme was being managed by students of these batches. They didn’t have any idea on how to control the crowd and that was the main reason behind the tragedy,” he said.
According to him, all the programmes that are held inside the campus are organised by the students. “Teachers never come into the picture,” he said.
Lack of monitoring, planning led to accident: Faculty
The stampede that resulted in the deaths of four students was the result of a lack of proper planning and the absence of teachers to monitor such large-scale events.
“Students are organising big events that involve `20–30 lakh. When such a big event happens, it is obvious that there will be a large influx of people to witness the event. But, there was no proper monitoring of such events by the teachers or the authorities,” said a Cusat faculty member.
“Earlier too, students used to organise such events. However, the teachers would position themselves at various places outside and inside the venue to ensure proper monitoring and to intervene if they sensed trouble. Now, the teachers are no longer welcome,” he said. Another faculty member said the tragedy could have been averted if the gates leading to the open-air theatre were left open. “The gates were shut even though there was enough space at the venue. Had the gates remained open, the tragedy could have been averted,” he said.
The tragedy has also triggered a debate on whether to restrict the entry of outsiders onto the Cusat campus. “Unlike some nearby colleges, the Cusat campus cannot be shut as there are several public institutions, such as an SBI branch, a post office etc inside the campus,” said the faculty member.