In an emergency evacuation situation what would you do?

This paper explores the responses of underground train passengers to an open ended question ‘In an emergency evacuation situation what would you do?’ A survey of 796 train passengers shows that respondents are more likely to depend on instructions from train station staff or public announcements rather than being active and evacuating quickly or alerting/inquiring emergency personnel. Male respondents displayed more active behaviour than female counterparts. Passengers were also willing to assist women, children and elderly in evacuation, therefore displaying cooperative behavior. The findings from the survey are consistent with the observations from some of the theoretical models on emergency evacuation as well as documented crowd disasters, suggesting questionnaire survey could be one of the methods to supplement our understanding of complex and rare events like emergency evacuation. However, some of the observed behaviors in some of the past incidents like ‘pushing’, and ‘overlooking alternative exit’, could not be captured through questionnaire survey. Our findings suggest that it would be very important to ensure that all station staff received proper training on emergency evacuation. Their roles and responsibilities regarding the management of the emergency situation in the train station have to be clearly communicated. Further, appropriate campaigns need to be conducted for passengers to make them aware of the importance of being proactive by using red emergency call buttons, calling 000 (emergency services number) to ask for help or going to the assembly area/safe place immediately.