When a cyclist in Toronto gets injured, it is often reported with the extra sentence, ‘and he/she wasn’t wearing a helmet.’ This is of course nonsense; the expensive helmets worn by motorcycle riders is meant to prevent concussion if you simply fall off the bike. It won’t protect you in a crash at speed. Bike helmets are far less protection than a Shoei. Simple as that.

Well, after the disaster at the hajj, I found this comment on BBC News:

Spokesman Maj Gen Mansour al-Turki told the Associated Press that some were foreign nationals who lived in Saudi Arabia and carried out the Hajj without the required permits.

In other words, some of the risk was created by not carrying a piece of paper.

A study of Saudi Arabia is recommended to any reader who vaguely wonders what on earth is going on there. It is unlike any country I have ever visited, for sure, and I am for sure not going there. For Muslims, this is not an option. If possible, they should make the pilgrimage once in a lifetime, minimum. It is an act of faith, faithfulness.

What really happened, imho, at the hajj, is this: the military who normally control traffic were busy in Yemen, and less-experienced soldiers were manning the crowd. They made a simple mistake, opening two sources of throng meeting at a single intersection.