7 of the 10 Astroworld victims were reportedly from same area of the crowd
Seven out of the 10 victims of the Astroworld tragedy were standing in the same overcrowded area of the crowd, a new report claims.
10 people died and hundreds more were injured during a mass-casualty crowd crush that occurred during Scott’s headline set at Astroworld Festival earlier this month (November 5).
A new report from The Washington Post claims that, from interviews with witnesses and watching videos from the event, that the deadly crowd surge hit one area of the crowd much worse than the rest.
The report says that 7 of the 10 victims were situated in the south quadrant of the crowd, enclosed by metal barriers on three sides. Analysis by crowd experts at Carnegie Mellon University, reported by The Washington Post, claimed that during the crowd there was only 1.85 square feet of available space for each crowd member.
Last week, attorney Thomas J. Henry filed a $2billion lawsuit over the incident on behalf of 282 people who hired him for legal representation, naming Scott, Live Nation, Drake (who appeared onstage during Scott’s set) and more as defendants.
“Those who were injured are still very traumatized because they had to step over dead bodies. They didn’t have a choice because there was nowhere to move. These people were trapped… They couldn’t breathe. They couldn’t get out,” Henry commented in a statement.
“My clients want to ensure the defendants are held responsible for their actions, and they want to send the message to all performers, event organizers, and promoters that what happened at Astroworld cannot happen again.”
The number of lawsuits against Scott, Live Nation and other defendants related to the incident continues to soar. Henry’s filing came just one day after another substantial suit was filed by Houston attorney Tony Buzbee, seeking $750million on behalf of 125 clients.
The latest fatality related to the festival was nine-year-old Ezra Blount, who died in hospital from his injuries on November 14. Blount had been placed in a medically-induced coma, following critical injury to major internal organs, including his heart, brain, kidney and liver.
The CEO of ParaDocs, the medical company hired by Astroworld, has also spoken out on the crowd surge tragedy, saying that his staff faced an “impossible feat” of treating 11 people with cardiac arrests at the same time.
In the days after the incident, Houston Police chief Troy Finner said he “expressed concerns” to Scott regarding safety at the event in the days leading up to Astroworld while Houston Fire chief Samuel Pena has since claimed that Scott should have stopped the show earlier but also said: “I’m not prepared to say he was fully aware of what was going on.”
