Over 700 people sustained injuries requiring notable medical attention after the fatal crowd rush at Travis Scott’s Astroworld Festival in Houston last November, according to a new court filing filed in Harris County on Monday.
Jason Itkin, Richard Mithoff and Sean Roberts, the attorneys acting as plaintiffs’ liaison counsel for the suits, divided the thousands of claims by number of deaths, number of injuries that required “extensive” and “less extensive” medical treatment or other unspecified injuries where the severity is still to be determined.
Along with the 10 deaths, the attorneys reported 732 claims tied to injuries that required extensive medical treatment, 1,649 tied to less extensive treatment, and 2,540 claims for injuries where the severity is still under review, totaling over 4,900 claims for deaths and injuries at the festival. It is to date the most extensive number of injuries reported since the tragedy; early reports estimated over 300 injuries.
It isn’t clear how the attorneys determined what merits “extensive” or “less extensive” medical attention for their clients’ injuries, they either declined to comment citing the gag order instituted in February or directed Rolling Stone to contact another attorney.
The crowd rush at Astroworld is one of the deadliest concert disasters in history. All ten of those who died after the festival suffered from compression asphyxia. Hundreds of lawsuits were filed after the disaster, with attendees, victims’ families and concert staffers such as security guards alleging negligence due to poor planning, insufficient communication between festival organizers and local ordinances and a lack of training for security staff among other claims. The Texas Taskforce on Concert Safety, which formed after Astroworld, recently concluded in a report that lax training and an insufficiently specific permitting process in Texas could’ve contributed to the tragedy.
The defendants have all tried to shirk liability from the event. Live Nation and its subsidiary Scoremore — which promoted the festival — have denied the allegations against them including wrongful death. Security company Contemporary Services Corporation, which also ran security at the Hollywood Bowl when Dave Chappelle was attacked during his set last week, also denied the claims. Scott has repeatedly denied having any responsibility for the tragedy, denying claims and requesting to be dismissed from the lawsuits. He played his first concert since Astroworld at a festival in Miami over the weekend.
