The Tragic Cause Of Death Revealed For All Astroworld Victims
The Astroworld Festival tragedy remains one of the darkest days in music history. This year, Travis Scott's annual music festival took place between November 5 and 6 at Houston's NRG Park. What was supposed to be a weekend of fun and memories quickly descended into madness and mayhem, as an "unprepared and underseasoned" staff (per Rolling Stone) was tasked with controlling the poorly coordinated event.
At the end of the event, at least 10 people had died, including 9-year-old Ezra Blount, and about 300 people were injured. Associated Press staffer Amy Harris stated that she "got crushed in the crowd between the barricade and the fence in the tunnel going out. I was very scared" (per Rolling Stone). "I got out. I texted the PR. I told them it was an unsafe situation and I wouldn't be going back out. They made an alternate plan to enter and exit the opposite side of the stage all day."
An anonymous photographer recalled the "sensory overload between the sounds of the stage, the sounds of the ambulance, the sounds of people screaming for the show to stop." The photographer also mentioned their "Apple Watch was pinging, alerting me that my heart was moving at an incredibly high rate," but couldn't move their hands to see due to the crowd crush. Now, the collective cause of death for the festivalgoers has been revealed.
Coroners have determined this was the cause of death for Astroworld Festival attendees
Following the chaos and crowd crush at November's Astroworld Festival, 10 fans were left dead in the end. Now, one month later, the coroner has determined the death of all festivalgoers. According to a report from the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences, the coroner revealed all of those killed died from compression asphyxia (per the New York Post).
According to the National Library of Medicine, compression asphyxia occurs when "the respiration is prevented by external pressure on the body," which is "usually due to external force compressing the trunk due to heavy weight over chest/abdomen and is associated with internal injuries."
Dr. George W. Williams of UT Health Houston offered more insight, stating, "When there's barely standing room and you're shoulder-to-shoulder with people both in the front and the back, all it takes is one person tripping on a rock or pushing forward to where you get a domino effect and one person pushes another and the next and the next," adding that "that collective weight can end up on just a few people" (per KHOU-11).