The collapsing of the stage in Indiana is the deadliest of its kind in United States history. The Indiana State Fair stage went down right after the crowd was warned to take shelter as the storm nears the location. It was estimated that 10,000 people gathered to watch the performance of country band Sugarland.
After the state official told the crowd to evacuate, a strong gust of wind blew that ripped through the fabric and metal structure. The National Weather Service said that the wind speed was more than 60 miles per hour. Aside from the five dead, 40 were injured during the accident.
Saturday when a 60-mph wind gust blew over the roof and metal scaffolding onto a crowd of fairgoers who had gathered to hear the country group Sugarland perform.
The Indiana Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) assigned five investigators to its probe of the incident, "which speaks to its magnitude," Indiana Labor Department spokeswoman Chetrice Mosley said. "Investigations can take weeks or months. In this case, it's probably months.
OSHA investigates any incident in which a worker is killed or severely injured, she said. Among those killed were security guard Glenn Goodrich and stagehand Nathan Byrd. The investigators will interview employees, examine the construction of the stage and evaluate each company's safety policies, procedures and training, Mosley said.
A team of structural engineers hired by the Indiana Fair Commission will pore over the "pile of mangled and twisted aluminum" for clues to why the stage failed, says Scott Nacheman, vice president of Thorton Tomasetti, the New York engineering firm.
Buildings are constructed to withstand a certain amount of wind and weight, Nacheman says.
"There's no building that can resist everything," he says. "When you're talking about tornadoes or microbursts (of wind), they can easily exceed the design capability of many structures."
It is unclear whether state building safety inspectors had the authority to inspect the stage or impose tougher standards. The city did not inspect the stage because it was built on state land.
"It's a patchwork of rules and regulations," says Paul Wertheimer, founder of Crowd Management Strategies in Los Angeles, which helps event promoters devise plans for handling large crowds. "We have the answers to run these events safely, but we don't do it. It's really still the Wild West. It's highly unregulated."
Investigators should also determine whether fair organizers had an emergency weather plan, Wertheimer says. "State fair management knew and was tracking the weather conditions, yet took no timely action," he says.
A local symphony that was to perform nearby canceled its outdoor performance because of weather conditions and urged spectators to seek shelter.
The tragedy points to the need for better, more uniform standards nationwide for temporary stages, says Gary Bongiovanni, editor of Pollstar, which monitors the concert tour business.
Bongiovanni has studied the video of the incident and attributes it to freak weather, not human error. The structure appeared to have the proper construction, including guy wires to hold it in place and drapes with slits that would allow the wind to pass through, he says.
A public relations company handling media calls for Mid America Sound, the company that built the stage, said the company would not comment on the incident until the investigations were completed.
The entertainment industry has written model standards for structures at concert venues that are strict, but voluntary, says Karl Ruling, the technical standards manager for PLASA, a trade association for the live-entertainment industry. PLASA encourages local regulators to adopt the standards.
The tragedy is a watershed moment will bring about intense scrutiny for the industry, says Chris McGregor, president of Stage II Design and Production in the San Francisco area.
"It's just a tragic and terrifying reminder for all of us in the business of what happens when we don't do things right," he says. "One minute you're putting on a show, the next people are dead."
The other stage incidents this summer include:
•On Aug. 6, wind toppled a lighting rig at an outdoor music festival in Tulsa, damaging the band Flaming Lips' equipment.
•In July, a storm collapsed a stage at a music festival in Ottawa, Canada, where Cheap Trick was performing. Three people were injured.
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