

You're in a crowd of people and suddenly all pandemonium is unleashed. Faced with a threat to your life, the mind does strange things. How do you get out alive, asks Stephen Cooter. No matter how terrible they look from the outside, in almost every disaster, be it a plane crash, a ferry disaster or a terrorist attack, someone usually gets out alive. And while it's impossible to be prepared for every eventuality, scientists are discovering that there are things we can all do to increase our chances of survival should the worst happen. ASSESS THE RISK While many of us are afraid of flying, very few fear driving even though we're much more likely to die on the roads than we are in a plane crash. Even fewer of us might consider falling a risk, but in 2007 falling (like falling out of bed or down stairs) killed about 400 more people in England and Wales than land transport accidents. Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. The reason is that our brain has evolved to use simple shortcuts to estimate risk rather than doing a full, logical, analysis. One of the shortcuts we use is our memory, but the trouble is some things are simply more memorable than others. "Threats like plane crashes and terrorism, while they don't occur very often they leave very dramatic memory traces," says John Maule, professor of human decision making at Leeds University Business School. "And because of that those traces are highly accessible. We know therefore that people consistently overestimate the likelihoods of those events." So one way we might increase our chances of survival could be to remember the dangers we face everyday and not just those we see on the news. REACT QUICKLY Contrary to what you might think, many people put their lives in danger by not reacting immediately disaster strikes. FIND OUT MORE... Horizon: How to Survive a Disaster is on BBC2 on Tuesday 10 March at 2100 GMT Or catch up using the iPlayer In his analysis of the evacuation of the World Trade Center on September 11, evacuation expert Professor Ed Galea found people took a surprisingly long time to leave their desks. The average was around 5-8 minutes, but he found some waited up to 40 minutes after the planes hit before leaving, finishing e-mails, filing things away, shutting down computers and even going to the toilet before evacuating. Professor Galea believes many of us underestimate the need to act quickly when disaster strikes. "People just don't appreciate that in these situations every second can mean the difference between life and death". EXPECT MIND GAMES "A lot of people assume in an emergency situation that their thinking, their perception, the way their mind works is all going to stay the same. And that's not the case, it changes," says Professor Andrew Silke of the University of East London. The mind can freeze in a crisis Many of these changes help people to survive. Tunnel vision is a common change experienced by survivors that helps people concentrate on survival. Many survivors also report a phenomenon called time distortion - most commonly seeing events unfold in slow-motion. "What's happening here is that your brain has shifted into a higher gear. And it's taking in more information. And as a result of this you'll get a sense that time has slowed down but it's only that your brain has shifted operations. It is now operating more effectively and faster than before." But the brain has a limit, so too much stress means that everything shuts down and the ability to cope, to concentrate or to focus disappears. And in that situation we might find ourselves doing the wrong thing. In his analysis of the 1985 Manchester Airport disaster, in which 55 people died, survival psychologist Dr John Leach found that some passengers stopped to take luggage out of the overhead bins, rather than escape from the aircraft. And others were unable to do anything at all, frozen in their seats until they were engulfed in flames. PREPARE FOR THE WORST "The time to start thinking about what you do in an emergency isn't when you're in an emergency," says Mr Silke. Oil rig men are trained in disaster emergencies However, experts are agreed that the best way to avoid freezing and increasing your chances of survival is preparation. And while you may not be able to take part in formal training exercises, there are still things you can do to prepare. Mr Silke believes that just visualising what might go wrong and then thinking through what you would do to get out can save precious seconds. "Once you've thought about the scenario you now have a plan inside your brain about this scenario. And so if it does actually happen you can pull that plan out and implement it there and then." BE CONFIDENT And finally, it's vital that once you have a plan you're prepared to put it into action rather than waiting to be rescued. Having the confidence to act is, says Mr Silke, something many survivors have in common. And anything we can do to prepare, will also help boost our confidence. "We have cases where you have a weaker, slower, less intelligent person survives while right beside them you have a smarter stronger faster person who doesn't. And the difference you find is that the person who survived, their self-confidence was higher." Add your comments on this story, using the form below. This reminds me of a story in our local paper a while back. A chap was restoring a vintage car that had no top to it. While restoring it, he wondered what might happen if it rolled over during an accident, so began practising ducking to the side so as to be under the top level of the car if this happened. The first day he took the car out for a test drive, he hit a patch of ice, skidded and flipped the car over. He survived unhurt because he'd practised his drill and had ducked into the passenger side of the car. Of course some would ask whether he had the accident because he'd thought about it so much, but at least his preparation worked!

Pippa, Somerset I notice that there is no mention of helping other people to survive. I once watched a television documentary about the survivors of a fire in a plane and the one thing that remains in my mind is that they all appear to have trampled over others in order to save their own skins. I was horrified and still am.

PattieB, UK Prior repetition of emergency procedures is what helps save you in emergencies. It's what the armed forces practice daily, and why when they're under fire, they're still scared but they perform the role they trained for. That's why I pay close attention time after time to the repetitive safety brief on all commercial flights. It will make a difference if you ever are in an aircraft emergency.

Steve Ritchie, Edinburgh About ten years ago, I used to skydive regularly. During initial freefall training in a harness on the ground, one of my instructors removed the dummy toggle used to deploy the parachute (without my knowledge), in order to simulate an emergency. The fact that I couldn't locate the toggle was very confusing, and initially I didn't know what to do. Some years later on a sky dive, I found that I was unable to locate the toggle for real. Because I had experienced this before. I knew exactly what to do, and wasted very little time thinking, and simply acted.

Rob Beck, Liskeard, Cornwall The same applies to avoiding danger. A case in point. Those who refused to go on the pleasure boat that sunk a couple of years ago off the UAE. They decided it was unsafe, I wonder how many others thought the same but peer pressure prevailed!

Simon Mallett, Maidstone In my experience, in training for emergencies, people under stress will follow strident command stimulus without question. Where groups fare best in coping with a dangerous situation there will be someone confidently giving instruction and direction; obedience is magnified where a recognised authority figure is present.

Ken Doerr, Chester My husband was attacked outside in the dark of night. I couldn't scream for help, but my eyes opened wide and suddenly I could see everything as if the lights were on!! I could see the "other" attacker in the bushes, and the face clearly of the one who hit him in the head! I'll never forget the power of the brain working overtime in a terrifying situation. So don't ever question the "super-human" strength you can get at these times.

Sarah , USA Name

Your e-mail address

Town/city and country

Your comment

The BBC may edit your comments and not all emails will be published. Your comments may be published on any BBC media worldwide.

Terms & Conditions





Bookmark with: Delicious

Digg

reddit

Facebook

StumbleUpon What are these? E-mail this to a friend Printable version