‘It's not victimless’: Dunedin party victim’s father reacts to latest student alcohol death

A man whose daughter died at an overcrowded party in Dunedin says it's devastating to hear a coroner's report into another alcohol-related death in the city. A coroner described the death of an Otago University student, who died after choking on his own vomit in 2023, as a "woeful illustration" of the country's youth drinking culture. Partygoers had carried him to a bedroom after he was found passed out and "pretty much unresponsive" in the kitchen. A witness described people later trying to clear vomit from his throat. Emergency services were called and took over doing CPR, but the student could not be revived. Bede Crestani, whose daughter Sophia was crushed to death at an overcrowded house party in Dunedin, told RNZ’s Checkpoint that supermarket companies Woolworths and Foodstuffs had some responsibility for the problem.