[sremani]

I think expansion of the pathways and re-architecting the landscape to take on capacity has created conditions for "mega" stampedes, so instead of few people here and there, the stampede cascades and creates bigger chaos and takes more lives.

This is what happens when expansion of capacity is done without decent safety measures in place.

[gohrt]

Safety measures aren't enough. The requirements are impossible: In finite time window T, N people attempt pass through finite region R. N increases every year, past the point where they just don't fit.

[mohsinr]

Number of peoples have not increased for last 10 years! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hajj#Number_of_pilgrims_per_ye...

Looks like some other factors contributed to this very unfortunate accident.