Nine people died of traumatic asphyxia due to an uncontrolled crowd at a community
basketball game in New York City in 1991. We reviewed the circumstances, postmortem
findings, and the causes of death. The majority of people had petechiae of the conjunctivae
and face consistent with chest compression. There were minimal superficial blunt injuries
and no fractures or acute intoxications. These deaths are often incorrectly attributed to blunt
force injuries, while the cause typically is asphyxia due to chest compression.

Deaths in stampede accidents are not new in India. Majority of causalities occurred as a
result of traumatic asphyxia in such cases. Traumatic asphyxia is a rare syndrome first
described over 150 years ago by Olivier. It is caused by sudden compressive chest trauma
and is associated with craniocervical cyanosis, facial edema and petechiae, sub-
conjunctival hemorrhage, and neurological symptoms. Although minor incidents of jostling
are common at railway stations, but deaths occurring consequent to stampede by an …