County officials unanimously approve plan to prevent another Astroworld tragedy

Houston officials are expected to vote on the four-point plan Wednesday.

HOUSTON — It’s been one year since the deadly tragedy at Astroworld and now officials have a new four-point plan to make sure it never happens again.

The Harris County commissioners unanimously approved the plan put together by the Special Events Task Force.

Most of the recommendations focused on communication and event planning. For example, any event with more than 6,000 people at NRG Park will need a medical and security plan submitted for review and approval before it happens.

The plans will go through a unified command center to make it easier to accept and reject event plans. As a final step, an event safety planning checklist will be posted online.

Houston City Council is expected to vote on the plan Wednesday.

RELATED: Little to no changes one year after Astroworld tragedy

Earlier this month, KHOU 11 News worked to find out what changed in the last year after ten people, including a 9-year-old boy, died in a crowd surge during Travis Scott’s concert.

Sadly, the answer was little to nothing, according to crowd safety expert Paul Wertheimer.

“Parents should be concerned and parents should be angry,” Wertheimer said. 

Wertheimer is the founder of Crowd Management Strategies. He calls the local and state response to the Astroworld tragedy “absolutely the worst” he’s seen in his career. 

Days after the incident, Gov. Greg Abbott formed the Texas Task Force on Concert Safety. By April, they’d released a nine-page report. 

Wertheimer said it’s a failure with no specifics or timetables for changes. 

“A high school class in Texas could have done better, quicker and at less cost,” Wertheimer said. “The task force didn’t even address the main cause identified of this disaster, and that’s the crowd crush festival seating. You won’t even find it in a word search in those pages.”

Wertheimer says the only way to prevent further tragedies is new tough legislation and criminal charges. 

But nearly one year since Houston Police Chief Troy Finner vowed to “learn lessons from this”, no one’s been charged. The Chief and his department only confirmed an investigation remains ongoing.

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