Astroworld's safety plan called for deceased to be referred to as smurfs

The security and emergency response plan prepared by organizers ahead of the Astroworld festival in Houston lays out details for responding to tornadoes, extreme heat, bomb threats, earthquakes and active shooters. But the 56-page document never once mentions how to handle a dangerous crowd surge, like what took place during headliner Travis Scott's concert over the weekend — and like the last time the rapper performed at the festival in 2019. Eight people died in Friday's tragic incident and several hundred were injured. And three people were trampled and hospitalized after concert-goers busted through barricades to get into the venue in 2019. The latest operations plan, which was obtained by Houston Public Media and provided to NPR, was prepared by a Texas-based security consultant to Live Nation. Given Scott's audience's track record at the previous Astroworld festival two years ago, as well as his other shows, Live Nation should have anticipated there would be some dangerous crowd behavior, Paul Wertheimer, a crowd security expert and founder of Crowd Management Strategies, told NPR. Scott's concerts are known for raucous crowds and as Houston Public Media reporter Paul DeBenedetto told NPR, the Houston-native is known to encourage fans to dance and mosh. Fans also expect and look forward to the mayhem of Scott's shows. "If I broke a leg, it was going to be a good thing," one attendee told The Washington Post. But organizers ignored all that, Wertheimer said. Instead, they put together a "boilerplate" plan that failed to address the dangers present in standing-room-only events."It doesn't address crowd crush or crowd craze, moshing or stage diving. And it doesn't discuss anything significant about what to do in an emergency situation," Wertheimer noted. What the document does state is the following: "From this plan, the potential from multiple alcohol/drug related incidents, possible evacuation needs, and the ever-present threat of a mass casualty situation are identified as key concerns."The closest organizers came to addressing how to respond to a crowd surge is in a section of the document related to civil disturbances or riots."In any situation where large groups of people are gathering there is the potential for a civil disturbance/riot that can present a grave risk to the safety and security of employees and guests."The key in properly dealing with this type of scenario is proper management of the crowd from the minute the doors open," the document states. But there are no details provided on how to do that. The plan also instructs security personnel to be aware of the possibility of a mob when attempting to detain an unruly or out of control concert-goer. "If detaining the perpetrator, watch for angry groups, mobs forming." But, again, provides no best practices on what to do once that happens. In the instance of a fatality, staff were told to "never use the term 'dead' or 'deceased' over the radio.


All data is taken from the source: http://npr.org
Article Link: https://www.npr.org/2021/11/10/1054543388/astroworlds-safety-plan-failed-to-say-what-to-do-in-case-of-a-crowd-surge


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