Photo Credit: Alexander LondonoThe coroner’s report for Astroworld victims reveals all then people died of ‘compression asphyxia.’
In layman’s terms, the crowd surge prevented all ten victims from being able to breathe. One victim is cited with a contributory cause of “cocaine, methamphetamine, and ethanol,” but the primary cause is suffocation due to external pressure. The coroner’s report was released by the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences in Houston.
Ten people died, and hundreds more were injured during a crowd surge at the Astroworld Festival. Fifty thousand people were in attendance, though some speculate more people may have been present due to poor gate security. At least seven of the ten victims were from the same area – enclosed by metal barriers on three sides.
Those who lost their life at Astroworld on November 5 include Mirza Baig (27), Rodolfo Pena (23), Madison Dubiski (23), Bharti Shahani (22), Axel Avila (21), Franco Patino (21), Jacob Jurinek (20), Brianna Rodriguez (16), John Hilgert (14), and Ezra Blount (9).
According to Variety, the Travis Scott team is working with the United States Conference of Mayors (USCM).
It’s a non-partisan organization of cities with populations of more than 30,000. The Scott team is working with USCM on an initiative to ensure festival safety at future events. The initiative seeks to identify weak points and introduce new safety measures to ensure what happened at Astroworld can’t happen again.
“This mass tragedy reinforced the serious issue of festival safety and security,” the agreement states. “As festivals with large crowd sizes continue to enjoy popularity, organizers, city officials and other stakeholders must have a clear understanding about best practices, current vulnerabilities, and access to the most innovative technology to ensure every festival is as safe as possible.”
The final report and recommendations from the initiative will be released publicly and discussed during a USCM webinar. Travis Scott has denied any legal liability for the deaths at Astroworld. He denied seeing any distress that would have caused him to stop the concert in a recent interview. Scott has been removed as a performer from Coachella 2022, which he was scheduled to headline.
