Reply #18: Yes

[Oak2004]

(Putting on emergency management hat here): the police are barking up the wrong tree and any charges they bring will either be dropped, or the persons will be acquitted. People trample people in trampling incidents because of crowd pressure, not individual choice. In fact anyone near the front of that crowd who had attempted to stop for the victim would have themselves been trampled.

Trampling incidents are a function of entryway design and poor crowd management. In fact, the motion of a crowd can be very accurately modeled, and there are computer models which can be used to assess trampling risks in buildings.

Assuming media reports are accurate and this is a classic trampling incident, no individual in the crowd is at fault. Walmart, however, is very much at fault. Once the local officials get their act together and start barking up the right tree, I expect Walmart will pay dearly for this incident.