The San Francisco Chronicle
DALY CITY, Calif. — Seventeen people who attended a concert Friday night at the Cow Palace in Daly City were hospitalized for apparent overdoses of drugs and alcohol - the latest trouble at the state-owned venue.
Emergency medical crews from San Francisco, Santa Clara and Alameda counties responded to San Mateo County’s mutual aid request after reports came in of multiple victims at the large event, Robyn Thaw, spokeswoman for the San Mateo County Health System, said Saturday.
The victims were taken to five hospitals in San Mateo County and San Francisco. Their conditions weren’t immediately available Saturday afternoon.
The event, called Subsonic Spookfest 2010 and sponsored by radio station Live 105, was open to partygoers 16 years old and older, according to the Cow Palace website.
A rave held at the Cow Palace in May left two people dead and injured more than a half-dozen others. In 2003, two people died of overdoses at a concert there. The Daly City auditorium, right across the city’s border with San Francisco, is owned by the California Department of Food and Agriculture.
State Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco/San Mateo, said the Cow Palace has a history of inadequate on-site law enforcement and medical personnel to deal with problems.
“The problems at Friday’s rave event wasn’t the first time a tragedy like this has happened,” Yee said Saturday.
Unfortunately, he added, the status of the Cow Palace as a state entity has tied the hands of the local authorities in Daly City to demand more police and paramedics on scene.
“If the Cow Palace fails to immediately develop a policy to protect our community,” Yee said, “I am prepared to introduce legislation that would require them to provide an adequate police and medical presence before hosting these raves.”
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