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Coroner Heather McKenzie began the inquest by stating its task was not to apportion liability but to consider what had happened in Dunedin since Crestani’s death and decide whether any recommendations should be made to help prevent similar deaths.
The partygoer told the inquest she had been invited by a previous tenant and was attempting to leave the party when she was caught in the struggle in the stairwell and her feet were lifted off the ground.
Two boys were at the bottom of the landing, screaming to push against the crush as a girl was unconscious, she said.
As people began to pile at the bottom of the stairs, she said she saw people clambering over bodies.
Sophia Crestani and her mother Elspeth McMillan. Photo / Supplied
The witness told the inquest she saw another two boys banging on a bedroom door, screaming to be let in. A boy opened the door, and there was a brief struggle before another boy appeared and the door was closed, she said.
She told the inquest she felt like she lost hope when the door was closed, and believed if it were opened people would have been able to get to safety.
When she was finally able to exit the flat, she helped a girl who was in shock get to the police.
“I still stand by the fact if it hadn’t cleared out any earlier, a lot more people would have been injured or suffered fatalities,” she said.
Another guest, who was invited to the party, told the inquest he was in a bedroom at the time of the crush but was not aware of what was happening outside and does not recall the door opening.
He could hear banging and shouts to be let in from outside the room but presumed it to be people who knew the tenant.
He said he was not aware emergency services had arrived at the party until after the music had died down and he opened the door to a female police officer, who told those in the room to leave.
Another guest who was in the room told the inquest he was “pretty intoxicated,” and did not recall banging or people yelling to be let in.
Another guest said there were many uninvited guests, and he saw a lot get thrown out.
The inquest also heard evidence from a partygoer who pulled Crestani from the crush with the help of another person.
Crestani was unconscious, and the two carried her to emergency services and told them she needed CPR.
Bede Crestani, Sophia’s father, tearfully thanked the witness for his actions.
“You picked up my daughter and you took her outside to try and save her, thank you... You did everything you could, more than most,” he said.
Sophia Crestani. Photo / Supplied
Barricading doors ‘standard’ for North Dunedin parties, witnesses say
An acquaintance of Sophia Crestani told the inquest that safety methods at the Manor were standard for student parties.
The student acquaintance of Crestani knew her through mutual friends at a student hall of residence the prior year. She knew the tenants of The Manor well and briefly caught up with Crestani upstairs at the party.
The witness told the inquest it was standard for tenants of flats to lock bedroom doors during parties, and her own flatmates had taken similar measures at parties hosted at their named flat including moving furniture in front of doorways.
The inquest previously heard tenants of the Manor barricaded some bedroom doors to limit areas of the party.
“When we hosted parties the priority was trying to keep our own personal belongings safe and locked off,” the witness told the inquest.
She said there was “absolutely” pressure to host big parties. Being in a named flat meant it was a sort of tradition to host them in the big weeks of the student calendar, and it was commonplace for named flats to receive multiple noise complaints.
In her first police statement, which was read to the inquest, the witness said she was attempting to leave upstairs to get some fresh air with a friend when she got to the stairs.
Sophia Crestani, 19, died at this Dundas St flat during a party in October 2019. Photo / NZME and Linda Robertson.
The stairs were packed, and people were trying to descend because the upstairs was full, and the pair were beside each other holding hands, she said.
They were halfway down the stairs when people started swaying. The witness saw a pile of people at the bottom. People were still pushing to get down the stairs and falling on the pile.
Some people were at the bottom trying to pick people up from under their shoulders.
“One person would fall and they’d get up, then the person behind them would fall onto the pile.”
The witness was separated from her friend but saw a Manor tenant heading to his room, and she screamed for him. He grabbed her hand and pulled her into his room and the door was shut, she said.
When they exited the tenant’s room, the flat had emptied.
Outside, the witness saw a girl being resuscitated and broke down. She also found her friend crying because she had injured her leg in the crush.
Around this time, she heard someone had died.
The witness told the inquest she had been to two big parties at the Manor before and thought this one was fairly “same same”, and did not think about how busy it was until she tried to leave.
She said she did not think anyone in the bedroom knew the extent of what was happening outside, and did not think much of “panicked screams” that could be heard as she was focused on contacting her friend.
She accepted there were differences in her second statement to police, and believed this was because of multiple discussions with friends in the four months between statements as it was a traumatic and tough time.
The house at Dundas St in Dunedin where student Sophia Crestani was crushed. Photo / Jason Oxenham
Tenants thought one exit enough for party
A former tenant of the Manor said the party organisers took steps “no different from what anyone [in North Dunedin]” would do.
He told the inquest the tenants had no idea the barricades would have a negative effect, and agreed the measures they took were standard for North Dunedin flat parties in 2019.
He told the inquest the tenants thought they were keeping people safe.
The tenant spent most of the party upstairs helping organise the upstairs DJ and stopping guests from going onto the flat’s balcony out of concerns about its structural integrity if inundated by a large number of people.
He told the inquest the upstairs party-goers were “oblivious” to the chaos below.
He said throwing parties was not much fun for the organisers, but they threw them for people to have fun and had deemed the prior two parties to be successes.
Around 11pm, he realised the party was getting congested but was not aware of any issues downstairs.
He said the primary issues considered by the tenants were having their speakers seized by authorities, property stolen, or “people not getting along”.
Asked if there was any consideration that people could exit the house, he told the inquest the tenants considered the one exit to be enough.
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