It's in the middle of a river bed?
the oriental rug will more than likely bunch together when one leg falls through, depending on the weight of victim (if the US ... more likely a problem) others will slide with victim but their combined weight will cause the rug to become taunt preventing a terrible embrassing incident
ummm, this probably better solved with Quatum Physics but knowing the US gov't they already payed $50mil for a study on the dangers of rednecks using pallets. I do believe they didn't choose the optional $10mil study for combining pallets from columbia with those freed from domestic companies.