Horrible stage collapse at the Indiana State Fair.

[langmick]

Think of this the next time you see a stage manager or stagehand smoking dope at 9AM or just screwing off not paying attention...I've seen enough of that nonsense.

Not saying it was entirely engineering related, but that weather looked real bad. Indiana weather can be mighty strong.



From a friend's fb posting.

‎"This was a James Thomas Engineering "Super Grid" built for Mid America Sound. Looking at the specs on this beast, it looks like it held right till the failure. The roof skin tore free just as it is designed to on those larger roofs, and the grid itself with all the production weight hanging on it stayed square thru the fall. In several of the photos you can see the SR tower legs litterally snapping in half 30' or so feet up in the air, something i have never seen in a roof collapse.

Its hard to tell but some of the video looks like the wind was strong enough to push the PA out towards the crowd shifting the PA's weight infront of the DS towers' footprint, thus starting the move forward into the crowd. I certainly wouldnt want to be arround any structure when this type of wind comes blowing thru out of no-where. In many of the photos it is evident, that there is no guy wires from the DS edge of the grid going anywhere upstage, with 5 guy wires per side and only 2 on the back.
In several of the photos taken earlier in the day, it appears that several of the guy wire and X bracing supports that were designed and in photo's on MSA's website of the exact same roof at the exact same venue, are missing. This leads me to believe that without those items are supposed to be there, and that the roofs strenght was compromised. In several of the aftermath photos, the guy wires from the SR anchors still appear to be attached and even under some tension, which means they didnt snap, and something else failed.

Additionally, in several of the previous year photos of this gig, the roof is pictured with outriggers on only the outer PA wing legs, but those same legs are using a different style base compared to the main roof section. " -David Buehler

Pics.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.233517350025642.61407.100001021352237

[patdrums]

Wow. We heard about this last night immediately after our show in Florence, KY (right outside of Cincy) and we were watching that band of storms as well as another that we thought was gonna nail us but passed by about 5 miles south. We were concerned that the second band (the one that hit Indy) was gonna hit us before we finished but we managed to get through the show before it reached us.

When you spend the majority of your gig time on decks like this during the summer and you see the rash of recent collapses -- Honeymoon Suite in Canada, Cheap Trick in Canada and now this one, it really pegs your meter. I can't count how many times I've been on one when a storm cell moves in and I look up to see line arrays and lighting trusses swinging over my head. Luckily, I've never been involved in a collapse but the odds certainly go up the more shows we do. If you play with snakes, you're gonna get bitten eventually.

It's crazy that I now actually take a second before a show and scout out an escape route just in case.

I'm gonna bet that they find someone in the production crew was negligent and didn't secure a guy wire or deck footprint correctly and it may have been preventable. At small fair gigs with production going to the lowest bidder, it's fairly common to see safety take a backseat. We got to our show today and there were no guy wires holding the deck. Our production manager refused to empty the truck until a forklift brought in concrete highway dividers and they tied the roof down. OSHA is gonna start showing up and checking things, charging the guys when it's not done right and the nickel-and-dime "do just as much as you can get away with" attitudes are gonna have to go.

At least they had the sense to clear the deck and hold the show until the storm passed. Still, it's tough to clear the crowd when they've waited all day to get a front row spot and they don't want to be told to get the hell away from the stage. Apparently, they were in the process of doing just that when the gust came and took it out in seconds. My thoughts go out to all the folks in Indianapolis who lost their lives in such a horrible tragedy.

[Miki C.]

terrible tragedy my thoughts and prayers go out to the victims