According to a report this week from The Washington Post, it is believed that seven of the ten people who passed away at Astroworld Festival this month in Houston, Texas were in the same small, enclosed area of the crowd.
The Post investigated the fatal crowd surge that left ten people dead, and hundreds of others injured, at Astroworld Festival, determining that the majority of those who lost their lives were located in the same overcrowded area. Looking closely into videos of the disaster, as well as firsthand accounts from witnesses, it appears as though at least seven of the deceased attendees were located in the south quadrant, and they were enclosed by metal barriers on three sides. This was the part of the crowd that was hit the hardest by the surge rushing toward the stage. Crowd experts at Carnegie Mellon University determined that there were only about 1.85 square feet of space for each person, noting that the pressure caused people to collapse.
The video analysis shows that people started arriving at the main stage, where Travis Scott got on stage at 9 PM, three hours ahead of his performance. At around 8:30 PM, people were seen rushing from SZA's show to Travis' stage, which intensified the already packed crowd.
"In general, that’s not a safe design because you can’t regulate the number of people who are in a high-pressure area," said University of Suffolk visiting professor Keith Still.
In some videos, 23-year-old victim Rodolfo Peña could be seen fighting to find more space for himself. Just sixteen minutes into the concert, a video shows a pile of unconscious bodies laying in the south quadrant, including 21-year-old Axel Acosta, 21-year-old Jacob Jurinek, and 21-year-old Franco Patino.
Hundreds of lawsuits have been filed against Travis Scott, Live Nation, Drake, and other participants in the festival. Last week, Travis was hit with his hardest lawsuit yet, worth $2 billion.
