Who keeps track of this stuff? > Survey Says Rock Concerts Less Deadly In 1998 > > CHICAGO (Reuters) - The number of deaths at rock concerts and music festivals >worldwide dropped by more than half last > year compared with 1997 but more people were injured, the Seventh Annual Rock >Concert Safety Survey said Monday. > > Poor safety and security conditions at 31 rock concerts and festivals resulted in >eight deaths in 1998 compared with the > decade-high 19 in 1997, Chicago-based safety consulting firm Crowd Management >Strategies reported in its annual survey. > > But it found that at least 5,691 concert-goers were injured last year, compared with >1,100 injuries recorded in 1997. > > ``The drop in deaths (from 1997) was more related to the fortunate absence of major >crowd calamities than to improved safety > procedures,'' the survey said. > > Of the eight concert fatalities, six were the result of violence, including two >fatal shootings in the United States, one fatal shooting > in South Africa, and two stabbings and one alleged beating in Great Britain. A >seventh death was linked to unknown causes > during a riot in Swaziland, and the other occurred when a concert-goer fell from a >balcony in Australia. > > At least three other people died in traffic accidents near outdoor festivals in the >United States but were not counted in the > survey's death total. > > Since 1993, 62 people worldwide -- 17 in the United States -- have died and roughly >21,000 were injured while attending 177 > concerts and festivals, the survey noted. >
