347 Killed in ‘The Cambodian Crush’, an Epic Human Pile-Up and Entanglement

 

Investigators search through clothing and personal belongings left on Rainbow Bridge the morning after the fatal incident.

Bon Om Touk or ‘The Water Festival’, held in Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh, is a three-day-long celebration of the end of the monsoon season and the semiannual reversal of flow at the Tonle Sap River. The festival is held at Koh Pich or “Diamond Island” and is the biggest Cambodian celebration drawing in as many as 1/3 of Cambodia’s 14 million residents each year. On Sunday, November 21, 2010 approximately 4 million people were attending the festival on its third and final day. The Rainbow Bridge, or the north bridge, was built specifically for the 2010 Water Festival as a 164-foot  (50 meters) long one-way path for people leaving the celebration on the island to return to the city. Those who were entering the festival from the city were to use the south bridge; However, regulations at the festival were lax and The Rainbow Bridge was closer to the excitement so many chose to use it, regardless of which direction they were traveling. Many had gathered on the bridge to get a better view of the boat race as the festival crowd grew in anticipation of a concert that evening. At around 9:30 PM (local time) something occured which led to a tragedy of 70s-disaster-movie-proportions. Due to the chaos that followed, no one is sure what sparked the initial panic. Some believe sightings of the bridge swaying and rumors it would collapse caused mass hysteria in the crowd, others claim they saw rope lights on the bridge beginning to spark. More likely theories claim a fight broke out leading police to fire a water cannon at the bridge which caused bystanders to run out of the way. Employees of ‘So-Cheata’, a soft-drink vendor at the festival said ten people fainted (rumored to be due to mass food poisoning) and caused others nearby to panic. Whatever the cause, well over a thousand people who were on the bridge at that time were compacted together, knocked over and entangled in a massive pile-up which led to hundreds of fatalities as those trapped at the bottom were trampled and crushed to death by the crowd. Sean Ngu, an Australian visiting friends and family in the country described the horror he witnessed, “There were too many people on the bridge and then both ends were pushing. This caused a sudden panic. The pushing caused those in the middle to fall to the ground, then [get] crushed. Panic started and at least fifty people jumped into the river. People tried to climb on the bridge, grabbing and pulling [electrical] cables which came loose and electrical shock caused more death.”. Another survivor, Lin, spoke of his experience, “I realized I could not  move. I could not go back, I could not go forward. People were pushing from everywhere and there was nothing I could do. I was right in the middle, everyone around me was falling, one on top of the other, they were being crushed. There were dead people all around me.”

 Lin’s girlfriend, Ni, was in the middle of the stampede with him and survived as well. Twenty-nine year old Kim Houng claimed if it wasn’t for his brother, he would have died, “I could not move my body. I could not move my legs. It was hard to breathe. They stepped on my head, my face, my body. If not for my brother, I’d be dead… I thought I’d die.” Sadly, Sopheap Meng’s brother was not as lucky; Sopheap grabbed his brother’s hand as tightly as he could, “But there was no air, I could not breathe. I got pushed to the side of the bridge, people were falling all around, onto my arm and I had to let go.”. Sopheap Meng’s brother was found dead later that evening. It took hours for emergency workers to untangle the survivors and remove dead bodies from the bottom of the pile.

 Van Thon, 25, remembered witnessing the aftermath, “People were carrying bodies of relatives, including children and woman. Everyone was looking scared.”. Most of the victims were women and children. Of the 347 killed, 240 of the victims were female. An additional 755 people were injured. Accorrding to medical and emergency workers who examined the deceased, the two main causes of death were suffocation and electric shock; However, the Cambodian government denies anyone was electrocuted.

Although this was the third incident in the Water Festival’s history that had resulted in fatalities, it was incomparable to anything that had happened previously; Five rowers had drowned at the festival in 2008 and one in 2009. The Cambodian health system is underdeveloped and hospitals struggle to keep up with daily demand.
A disaster of this proportion completely overwhelmed hospitals in the area which were overcrowded with victims, both living and deceased. Nearby Calmette Hospital set up a white tent on hospital grounds and filled it with uncovered bodies that had yet to be identified. Family members would walk through the tent searching for missing relatives. Once the victim’s identity was confirmed, they were covered with a sheet. Boupha Lak found the body of her daughter inside the tent and spoke with reporters while gently stroking her daughter’s feet, waiting for paperwork to be completed, “She went to the festival to see her friends, but she was alone on the bridge when it happened. Her friends I have seen today, they were on the other side [of the bridge]. She was found on the bridge, crushed underneath all the other bodies. They told me she was on the bottom.”. All the victims’ bodies had been identified and removed by the evening following the fatal disaster. 
The following video is footage from a local Cambodian news station covering the incident at the 2010 Water Festival and shows hundreds of people in the human pile-up tangled together. (It is one of the most bizarre things I have ever seen and is definitely worth watching).
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Stage 1: Pallor Mortis

Pallor Mortis seen in Pablo Bartholomew’s photo of the Bhopal Gas Disaster of 1984

The first stage of decomposition “Pallor Mortis” translates to “paleness” [pallor] “of death” [mortis] and generally occurs 15-25 minutes after death. Postmortem paleness of the skin is usually seen more immediately in those who are anemic and/or have less melanin in their skin and therefore were more pale in life. Pallor Mortis is caused due to lack of capillary circulation within blood vessels which run throughout our bodies. The constant flow of blood through a living being gives the skin a good amount of its color and “lifelike” quality. During Pallor Mortis, blood stops its flow and begins to sink to lower parts of the body due to gravity. This pooling of blood becomes more evident in the fourth stage of decomposition, Livor Mortis. Unfortunately, Pallor Mortis is little to no aid in determining time of death due to its sudden onset and is only able to indicate whether the death took place more or less than half an hour before discovery of the body. During the stage of pallor mortis, we also see a thin film appear over the cornea of the deceased if eyes are open. While this is not caused by lack of blood circulating throughout the body, it occurs within a few minutes of death. The paleness seen in pallor mortis can also be caused in life by shock, heart failure, a vitamin D deficiency brought on by lack of sunlight, vasoconstriction (narrowing of the blood vessels) and homeostasis, which occurs in extreme cold.
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Stage 4: Livor Mortis

The fourth stage of decomposition, Livor Mortis translates to “blueish color” [livor] “of death” [mortis] although it has many names including “hypostasis”, “suggillation”, “cadaveric lividity”, “darkening of death” and “postmortem staining”. Livor Mortis begins when circulation stops, blood vessels become more permeable due to decomposition, and blood settles throughout the corpse. Red blood cells, which are very dense, travel and pool in the lowest areas possible, staining the tissue. This means in a hanging death, discoloration would be seen in the feet, fingertips and ear lobes. Males who die from hanging may also acquire what’s known as a “Death Erection” (or “Angel Lust”) due to the pooling of blood in their penis.

Death Erection

In someone who died in the supine position (lying face up), lividity would appear on the corpse’s back. Drowning victims, or bodies found in water show signs of Livor Mortis in the face, upper parts of the chest, hands, lower arms, feet and calves because they are in constant motion. Livor Mortis begins within 20 minutes to 2 hours of death and initially causes the skin to appear blue and blotchy. Blood congeals in the capillaries within 4-5 hours and in 5-6 hours, blotches on the skin become more fluid. At this time, if pressure is applied to the discolored area(s), skin will turn white. Maximum lividity can be observed between 6-12 hours, and after 10-12 hours, skin will retain discoloration even when pressed. The name is slightly misleading as it tends to appear more of a blueish-purple or purple-ish red in most cases. Certain poisons alter the color of postmortem staining, which can aid in determining cause of death. In a carbon monoxide poisoning death, discoloration would be a cherry pink. Hydrocyanic acid poisoning appears bright red, and nitrates, potassium chlorate, potassium bicarbonate, nitrobenzene and aniline (which causes methaemoglobinaemia) all manifest as a red-brown or brown discoloration. Phosphorus poisoning causes dark brown postmortem staining. Discoloration is especially evident on the ear lobes and underneath fingernails and in fair-skinned people. Intensity of the color depends on the amount of hemoglobin in the blood of the deceased and hypostastis can be internal as well as external, often manifesting on the heart, lungs, kidney, spleen and other organs. During later stages of Livor Mortis, the body may also begin to show “marbling”, which is caused by the breakdown of hemoglobin.

Marbling

Tardieu Spots

Corpses in the later stages of Livor Mortis may also develop “Tardieu spots”, which look like purple liver spots. These dark spots are created by ruptured capillaries. In addition, “vibices” are often visible on bodies during the stage of Livor Mortis. Vibices look like strips or bands and are caused by pressure, usually left by tight-fitting clothing such as socks, belts and bras. In hanging deaths, a noose or other method of hanging may be visible in the form of a vibice. When pressure is applied to the corpse, it prevents blood from pooling in those areas.

Vibices seen on corpse. Lividity suggests corpse was in supine position at time of death.

Petechiae, larger haemorrhages or palpable blood blisters may form on patches of discolored skin. The subtle differences between postmortem staining/haemorrhages and bruising obtained in a fatal accident or murder is evident to investigators when determining cause of death. The discoloration caused by pooling of blood in the vessels appears slightly different from bruises which are formed when blood escapes the vessel. Livor Mortis is incredibly useful in determining whether a body has been moved after death. For example, if a body is livor on the back, indicating they died in the supine position but are discovered in prone position (face down), it is evident someone move the body. Signs of the fourth stage of decomposition are also a tale-tell sign that resuscitation is futile.
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Find out what happens before Livor Mortis in Stage 1: Pallor Mortis, Stage 2: Algor Mortis, and Stage 3: Rigor Mortis and after Stage 5: Putrefaction

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If you enjoyed this article, you may also like Everybody Poops: The Post-Mortem Edition and Demystifying the Process of Dying

Demystifying the Process of Dying

As an aging body approaches death and begins slowly shutting down, many changes occur which often frighten those experiencing and witnessing the final days of a human life for the first time. We tend to fear things we don’t understand and because death is considered a “taboo” subject, most people don’t share what they observed after witnessing their loved one pass on. Generally, a person’s first “lesson” in death isn’t received until they are at the side of a spouse or parent who is dying, or until they are dying themselves and do not know what to expect from their final hours. In a person’s last few days, circulation begins to decrease throughout the body as blood flow is reserved for the most vital organs. Circulation having decreased, the dying person may feel increasingly cool to the touch on their hands, arms, feet and eventually legs. The brain, at this point, is no longer considered a “vital organ” and will receive less blood flow, which may lead to mental changes such as confusion and hallucinations. These hallucinations however, may be less of a “mental shift” due to lack of blood flow and more of a spiritual experience as the soul detaches from this Earth. Often times, as people reach their final days they begin having “visions”, claiming to have been visited by or spoken with deceased loved ones. Usually the “visions” are very real for the person experiencing them and comforting in the process of crossing over. Irregular breathing patterns may also be observed in a dying person. Shallow breathing is common, as is no breathing at all for periods of time usually lasting 5-30 seconds, but can last up to one minute. Due to the kidneys and other organs, which have been deemed “not vital”, operating at minimum capacity, someone reaching death may produce less urine than expected that is darker than normal. The “death rattle” can be a particularly disturbing end of life event for most family members and friends who witness a loved one pass. Death rattles can begin 2-3 days prior to death and is caused by build up of fluids (saliva, bronchial secretions) in the upper chest. Dying persons who have difficulty swallowing may also have excess fluids in the back of the throat. The “death rattle” produces a bizarre gurgling sound, which is similar to a rattling, hence the name. Once the heart and lungs stop functioning and brain activity ceases causing a loss of sentient personality, a person is considered to be clinically dead. In clinical death, brain cells begin scrambling to use of the last of the body’s oxygen supply, causing irreversible damage to themselves in the process. Aproximately 4-6 minutes after clinical death occurs, biological death follows. It is after biological death that resucitation becomes impossible.
Come back tomorrow to learn some weird things our bodies continue to do after we die!
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