Analysis of the ‘News Divine’ stampede disaster

• The ‘News Divine’ stampede has been analyzed by applying MORT and the FIST model.
• A number of causal factors have been identified in the analysis.
• The human stampede disaster could have been prevented.
• Some recommendations have been identified in the analysis.

The paper presents the results of an analysis of the ‘News Divine’ human stampede which occurred on 20th June 2008 in Mexico City. As a consequence of the disaster, twelve people were killed and dozens were left injured. The approach has been the application of the Management Oversight Risk Tree (MORT) technique and the FIST (Force, Information, Space, Time) model. The MORT is intended to look at various organizational failures that have led to an accident; the FIST model, on the other hand, addresses the causes of crowd disasters. The analysis has highlighted a number of causal factors leading to the disaster. Effectively, the stampede could have been prevented. Some potential recommendations have also been identified. It is hoped that by conducting analysis such as this may be prove beneficial for a better understanding of crowd management.