OSHA issues fines for Stage Manager killed in blast

2016-02-03 -Last summer we reported about an incident in west Texas where a Stage Manager was killed when a pyrotechnics storage bunker for an outdoor show exploded  (http://theatresafetyblog.blogspot.com/2015/08/fireworks-storage-building-explodes-and.html)

OSHA has now investigated the incident and issued a statement:  “A 21-year-old worker, with three months of work experience under her belt, lost her life because Texas Panhandle Heritage Foundation failed to provide appropriate training and protective equipment to workers handling pyrotechnics.”

That was the assessment of Elizabeth Linda Routh, OSHA’s area director in Lubbock, Texas, after a young worker was fatally injured last summer while taking an inventory of the pyrotechnics for an outdoor musical production at the Palo Duro Canyon State Park in Canyon, Texas.

After an inspection following the fatality, OSHA issued six serious citations for failing to train workers on the use of explosives, provide fire retardant clothing, perform a hazard assessment and develop a written hazard communication program.

Proposed Penalties: $42,000

Texas Panhandle Heritage Foundation is a performing arts employer.

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Although $42,000 may not seem like much for a human life, this assessment of the situation opens the door for civil litigation so the victim's family can pursue further compensation.

Check yourself.

 

Don't expect others to do it for you.  You are your best first defense against stupid - or worse.

Orchestra Pit Cover Collapse During Performance Injures 28

Anaheim, California 2014-03-10 - Students performing an energetic dance routine on the extended forestage at Servite Catholic High School were injured when the stage collapse into the Orchestra Pit below.  The auditorium was originally constructed in the 1980's and the stage extension / pit cover was added in 1996.  Images from the accident scene show what appears to be a modular structure that was built by the school, not a commercially available staging system.

Local Police and Emergency Rescue were called to the scene to extract injured performers and transport them to the hospital as needed.  Some injuries were minor scrapes and bruises, and sprained ankles, while 24 students were transported, some on back-boards with possible neck and back injuries, and a report of broken bones.

Looking into the Orchestra Pit after the Stage Extension Collapsed
(Photo Courtesy of the Anaheim Police Department)

The structure will be inspected to discover the exact nature of the failure.  Although persons interviewed by local papers said that the collapse was unforeseeable (blogger comment: not likely), and later comments (in the follow-up section of this post) show that there was some forewarning (visible sagging) prior to the floor giving-way.

The Anaheim Fire Marshal and Building Inspectors were on scene Sunday investigating what caused the collapse, said Lt. Tim Schmidt of the Anaheim Police Department.  “It looks like, on its face, that too much weight was on the stage than what it was originally built for,” Schmidt said Sunday night.

The high school's platform stage was previously permitted for use, Schmidt said.  Now investigators will be rechecking that permit to see if it included a weight restriction or a limit as to the number of people who could safely be on the stage at one time.

Schmidt said he expected the investigation, which is being led by the Anaheim Fire Department, to take up to two weeks.  He added that Servite has been cooperative in the investigation.  “They want to find out what happened as much as we do.”

Follow-up 2014-03-14:

A news article by the local NBC4 I-team reveals that no permits were ever made for the stage extension addition.  Also from the article we quote:

Carly Yates, a former ballet student and a current NBC4 intern, had danced on the stage for years.
 
She said she and her fellow dancers were always concerned about the safety of the stage.
 
“There was something wrong it,” says Yates.
 
She says dancers would wait below the stage until it was their turn to perform.
 
"When you were underneath the stage in the [make-shift] Green Room [(orchestra pit)], you saw the boards were flimsy," she said.  "They would bend and down as the dancers on top if it danced on it."

Load-out ends tragically for stage worker in Milan, Italy

June 19, 2:40 AM, Milan, Italy - 34 year-old Egyptian stagehand Farouk Abd Elhamid Khoaled was killed during a load-out accident after the close of the KISS Monster Tour 2013 show at the Forum of Assago arena.  Reports vary by translation, but the general consensus was that three workers were operating either a fork lift / boom lift or a freight elevator (language translation web sites don't seem to agree on this) to move some scaffolding and crates to the loading dock.  The lift was overloaded and began to oscillate, pitching Farouk into the path of a shifting load where he was crushed.  One of  the other workers, 21, was transported to the hospital with serious injuries and the third was unharmed.

The original Italian news article can be found here:
www.lettera43.it/cronaca/forum-di-assago-morto-schiacciato-un-operaio_4367599465.htm

Load-out (strike) can be one of the most dangerous operating periods during an event,  People are tired, it's late at night, and everyone tends to be in a hurry to get it over-with.  This is the time to be one the look-out for ill-conceived operation of lifts, hoists, dollies, trucks, carts, and other machinery.  Don't let your guard down!

Spring Storm in Thailand Topples Stage and Kills One

June 17, 2013 - Phuket, Thailand.  A poorly built stage canopy and adjacent speaker towers fell-over during high winds at Paphan Hin public park.  One person seeking shelter near the stage was crushed and killed instantly by the weight of the speakers that fell on him.  The stage was erected for a Prison Fair where furniture and other goods fabricated by the prisoners are sold to benefit them.

Witnesses say a 62 year old man that was a motorbike taxi driver, Mohammad Poksakul, sat near the stage and when a 60 kph wind gust pushed the canopy sideways, it forced the 10m tall speaker tower over, which in-turn, fell on to him and killed him.

The victim lies covered-up, stage canopy at right, stage left speaker tower in background.

Toppled Speaker Tower at Stage Left - Note lightweight scaffold framing.
The base does not appear to haven any anchor plates.

View of Stage Right Canopy Supports - Note that they only provide vertical support - no lateral stabilizers, the base was not anchored to the ground.  The orange straps appear to have been guy-lines that tore loose from their attachment points.

Concert season is windy season everywhere.  Be alert to bozos that do not understand how to secure the stage.  Be alert to promoters that don't evacuate the area when storms approach.

Fall Into Orchestra Pit Claims Another Life

On March 17th, 2013, the Acting Chief Director of the Perm Opera and Ballet Company backed-up and fell about 3m (~10 feet) into an open Orchestra Pit during a rehearsal of Peer Gynt.  Olga Enns, 33, struck her head and was urgently rushed to the hospital where doctors assessed her injuries and said she here chances of survival were minimal.

Olga Enns - 1980-2013

Olga spent the next two week in a coma, and on April 2, 2013, she passed away.  She is survived by here mother and a sister.  Olga had worked at Perm since 2006 and was integral in the effort to make  the theatre more friendly to visiting performance companies.

---------------------------------------

Let's be more vigilant about safety!

Watch-out for others that are working
around the edges of stages and traps.

LED Screen Falls Injuring Three at Miami Ultra Music Festival

Thursday, March 14, 2013 - Workers setting-up modular LED display screens for the annual Miami Ultra Music Festival were trapped under screen components that fell about 30 feet (10m) from the overhead trusses.  Fortunately, Fire and Rescue teams were on the festival site preparing for the two-weekend event that runs over Spring Break.  They were able to respond immediately and free the trapped workers.  The workers were transported to local hospitals where two were checked and found to have only minor injuries, and one worker remains hospitalized with two broken legs.  The incident occurred just prior to 8:00 PM the night before the festival opens.

The City of Miami had originally passed on requiring special engineering reviews for the festival stages, but the morning after the incident, they rescinded that ruling and city engineers, building inspectors, the Miami Fire Marshal, and OSHA reviewed all six stages to ensure that they were safe.  The event opened on-schedule and over 330,000 people are anticipated to attend.  Reports coming-in the first evening of the festival indicated that more than 15 patrons were transported for medical reasons due to a variety of causes.

A video from a Miami TV station is here: http://miami.cbslocal.com/latest-videos?autoStart=true&topVideoCatNo=default&clipId=8633167

Hopefully, the recently developed Event Safety Guide organized by the Event Safety Alliance will reduce the number of worker and patron injuries over the years to come.  This assumes, of course, that cities and states chose to adopt this as a best practices manual.

Actress Injured by Falling Lighting Equipment

Actress Kristin Chenoweth was rushed to a New York hospital after she was injured on the outdoor set of "The Good Wife" that was shooting in Brooklyn, NY on Wednesday afternoon, July 11, 2012.

A source connected to the production of the CBS show said that Kristin was struck by a piece of lighting equipment that was dislodged from a scaffold due to a strong gust of wind.

The 44 year old Tony Award-winning actress immediately fell to the ground and her head impacted the concrete.

A witness said that Chenoweth was hit "square in the head" and appeared to be "knocked out cold. I thought she was dead at first."

A crew member called 911 around 5:07 PM ET to report a woman who had been hit in the head by a scaffold.  The item that struck her was later identified as a ‘Lighting Silk’ (a metal frame with a fabric lighting diffusor media) and the boom stand that supported it.  Paramedics treated Kristin on the set fitting her with a neck brace and putting her onto a stretcher.  She was quickly taken away from the set in an FDNY ambulance and was admitted to a nearby hospital in Manhattan.

 A representative for the New York Fire Department said that Kristin was being treated for "minor injuries" connected to the accident.

Chenoweth later said that she had been hit in the face by the lighting instrument and then hit the back of her head on the curb, which knocked her unconscious.  She said that she had a 5½” skull fracture, possibly cracked or bruised ribs, some additional injuries to her hip, back, and neck.  Two months later she was still requiring some physical therapy and wears a neck brace from time to time.

On August 13th she resigned from the cast of the show. "It is with deep regret to inform everyone that due to my injuries, I am unable to return to 'The Good Wife' at this time," Chenoweth said. "[I’m] Getting better slowly, and thank you, everyone, for your concern.”

The accident not only caused Chenoweth physical injury, but mental as well. The actress described how she struggled forming sentences and remembering words. She told the NY daily News that “I couldn’t really form a sentence after it happened.  I’m the queen of multi-tasking.  I’m not so good at that right now.   I’ll be like, ‘Mom, are you talking on the thing that you push ... the phone?’ ”

“That’s been interesting, but that’s getting better. I’m grateful.  It could have been much worse.”

The actress has been involved in other performance-related accidents, too.

• She injured her neck during the pre-Broadway engagement of "Wicked" in 2003.
• She fell off an elevated section of the stage during a rehearsal of the Broadway revival “The Apple Tree” in 2006.
• She injured her back on the set of “Glee” when she tumbled down a set of concrete stairs in 2011.

Protecting Performers AND the Audience

Unruly spectators can pose a risk to themselves, those around them, crew, and performers.  In rowdy rock concerts with drugs and/or alcohol added to the mix, it can be even more unpredictable.  On May 24, 2010, the lead singer for the heavy metal band Lamb of God, was performing in Abaton, a nightclub in Prague, Czech Republic.

In the course of the show, fans were allegedly enticed to come onstage and dive into the audience for a little body surfing.  Things got out of control and one patron went off of the stage backwards and was not caught by the crowd.  He supposedly struck his head on the floor, but was able to get-up and walk out of the club.  He later collapsed, was taken to the hospital, and remained in a comma for several weeks before dying.

The band's promoter said that they had not heard anything about the pending arrest and had booked dates without any knowledge that the performer might be held accountable for the incident.  The lead singer, Blythe, was arrested June 27th, 2012 as he entered the country to promote the bands newest album.  Blythe has been held by the Czech Republic police awaiting a bail bond hearing since entering the country.  He has been charged with manslaughter.  Several web sites have followed the incident and some have posted cell-phone videos from that night's concert.  Depending who you believe, it may have been an accident, or there may have been other people involved or responsible for the circumstances.

It is important that performers can work safely on stage and not worry about being assaulted by guests, and it is incumbent upon venue managers to see that proper controls are placed between artists and fans.

 ---------------------------------

However, it is not just artists and fans that require protection, either -- on October 30th, 2004 there was an incident in a Dallas, Texas nightclub where the lead guitarist Vince Neil (formerly with the rock band MÖTLEY CRÜE was unhappy with the stage monitor mix operator.
After motioning for for more guitar volume during his headlining set at Gilley's Dallas, Neil ran across the stage, leaped onto the monitor mix sound board and swung a leg at sound man Michael Talbert, but missed; then Neil struck him with a "closed fist."

Talbert, who was looking down, saw only the monitor mixing console and Neil's foot next to him before losing consciousness for about 45 seconds after Neil's punch knocked him to the ground.  He said a CT scan revealed that he had suffered a mild concussion. "He tried to kick me and missed, took a swing and connected.  He clocked me pretty good on my eyeball," said Talbert, who works at Gilley's. "He just went cuckoo nutso."  An arrest warrant was later issued for Neil

More information can be found at:

www.rollingstone.com/music/news/lamb-of-god-singer-still-imprisoned-in-czech-republic-20120705

www.randyblythe.posterous.com

www.blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=176308

Related Blog Post:

theatresafetyblog.blogspot.com/2011/09/performers-need-some-limits-and.html

Actor accidentally really hangs himself.

The celebration of Easter frequently has re-enactments of significant events in the life if Christ.  In this case, an Brazilian actor, Tiago Klimeck, 27, was recreating the suicide of Judas Iscariot as he hangs himself as described in the Bible in the book of Matthew.  This is part of a production of the play "The Passion of the Christ."  The event was presented on Good Friday in the southern city of Itarare, Brazil.

The actor just before the accident.

Klemick was wearing a fall protection harness and allegedly knew how to arrange the equipment under his robe costume so that the rope around his neck would not cause him any harm.  He had borrowed the harness from the local Fire Department on previous occasions, so they did not review the donning of the equipment with him.  Witness say he was hanging nearly four minutes before anyone became concerned.

Luiz Carlos Rosner owns a sandwich cart next to the city square where the play was taking place. He described the anxiety after cast members realized Klimeck was unconscious.  "One of the actors came over to me, desperate, explaining there was someone unconscious hanging from the rope and that he wanted to cut it," Rosner told TV Record. "I was a little worried about giving him a knife in the middle of the crowd."

He was taken down and rushed to the hospital where he remained in a medically induced coma in a medically induced coma for 16 days due to extensive brain injuries from a prolonged lack of oxygen.  He passed away in he Hospital Santa Casa de Misericordia, in the neighboring city of Itapeva.

The harness, along with the rope used in the play, are now being analyzed at the Criminal Institute of Sorocaba.

-----------------------------------------

No matter how confident performers and technicians are in setting-up stunt work, it is vital that pre-show rehearsals review the effect, the equipment, and the adjustments of the components to ensure performer safety.  It is also important to have a quick way to check if performers are in trouble.  In this situation, a discrete hand signal that would only be possible if the performer is conscious might have provided just enough warning to  a spotter that the effect had been compromised.  Ideally, the harness and rope system would have been reviewed to ensure that the relative tensions were proper.  Presumably, there was someone there to lower the actor to the ground after the scene, and this person should have had eye-contact and/or intercom communications with spotters, too. The search for a knife to cut the actor down indicates that there was no easy way to lower the performer to safety.

NO stunt is worth your life.  Plan, check, certify, evaluate, think of all the ways the stunt might go wrong, re-evaluate, check again, test it, and re-test it.

2012 Summer Event Season Post First Death

April 18, 2012 - Jerusalem, Israel.  A twenty year old female IDF medical corps officer, Second Lieutenant Hila Betzaleli, died from injuries sustained when the over-stage canopy for an outdoor event collapsed onto her.  Seven others were injured, too.  The incident happened as the Color Guard soldiers were rehearsing for the National Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terrorism Remembrance Day ceremony on Mount Herzl.  According to reports, it was very windy at the time of the collapse, and a truss laden with lights fell when a cable failed to stabilize the structure.  The structure was about 10 meters tall.  An initial investigation revealed that a cable supporting the lighting fixture truss was torn apart and as a result, the fixtures collapsed and dragged a concrete cube that weighs a few tons.

Emergency services began treating the wounded shortly after the collapse and there are fears that some people may be trapped under the debris. A spokesman for Magen David Adom said that it was the sound and lighting system that collapsed onto the stage during rehearsal.

Eight of the people involved in the erection of the stage were arrested and held pending further hearings.  Four were later released, and the remainder were released under house arrest pending further investigation.  The four detained were being held on charges of negligent manslaughter. 
The four suspects, including the owner of the company that built the lighting rig, Elad Lavie, the company engineer, Oren Varshavky, the security consultant Yitzhak Zuker, and the director of the ceremony, Alex Sela, were released to seven days house arrest. They cannot contact anyone for 30 days, as the investigation is continuing. All the suspects must also pay financial guarantees.

Design Group, the company that erected the lighting fixtures said in response that it adhered to the instructions of engineers and supervisors and did not veer from safety instructions.

"The installation was not built today and has been erected for more than 10 days," the company said.

"It has been checked by safety engineers, passed two examinations and received the necessary permits. Design Group was responsible of following the instructions given by the engineers." 

Elad Lavie’s lawyer, Kobi Kamar, said Lavie still stands by his claim that the company received approval for the structure. Kamar denied that the suspects are playing a game by shifting the blame around and implicating each other.

According to Israel Army Radio, the suspects stand accused of forging documents and paying bribes to secure the Mount Herzl job and others.

Jerusalem District Police Department  Commander Manny Yitzhaki said that police were investigating every aspect of the incident. “We will investigate the facts one by one to understand how this happened and who is responsible,” he said.

Despite the tragic event, the authorities have decided that the ceremonies at Mount Herzl will go ahead as scheduled.

Sigalit Bezaleli, Hila’s mother, has been invited light a torch at the ceremony with Knesset Speaker Rueven Rivlin, a family representative announced on Monday. “The family welcomes the decision to have the ceremony continue as planned – this is what Hila would have wanted,” the family said in a statement.

Family friend, Bar Sitton, noted that Har Herzl was like a “second home” to Bezaleli, whose mother Sigalit has worked for 16 years in the administration of the site.  He added that it was tragically symbolic for Sigalit to be honored at the very place where Hila lost her life and where she is buried.  Sitton said that Sigalit Bezaleli is dedicating her torch to halting the “Israeli culture of carelessness.”

Follow-up: 2014-04-30 - Six Charged with Criminal Negligence and Involuntary Manslaughter after Israeli courts consider the facts.  Charges were brought against five people and a staging company associated with the April 18, 2012 collapse of a stage structure that killed an IDF officer and injured seven other military personnel.

On April 30, 2014 Jerusalem District Court noted that all those charged in the incident would have the opportunity — which could also be waived — to meet with prosecutors in the case for a hearing on their involvement in the incident.

The five individuals charged, according to reports, included Elad Lavi, Doron Lavi, Taimuraz (Tomer) Laonidzeh, Yitzhak Zucker, and Oren Varshavsky.  The staging company owned and run by the Lavis — Itzuv Bama — was named as a sixth party charged in the accident

The named individuals include the founders and CEO and COO of the implicated staging company (Elad and Doron Lavi) along with its director of operations (Laonidzeh). Zucker and Varshavsky were, respectively, the safety consultant and engineer working on the project.

Another one's down. Another one bites the dust.

March 5, 2012 - Reggio Calabaria, Italy.  One stage hand was killed and two other injured as a space frame style stage truss structure collapsed and fell forward into the stage right side tiers of audience seating.  Fortunately, the incident occurred during the initial set-up of the equipment and there were no audience members present.

Photo courtesy of Life In Italy

The incident happened about 2:00 AM preceding the planned show the following evening.  Witnesses say one side of the stage structure slipped and collapsed sending the overhead trusses filed with lighting equipment onto Matteo Armelini, age 32.  He was killed instantly under the weight of the equipment.

Experts will now have to decide whether the collapse was caused by the failure of the Palacalafiore Sports Center’s parquet flooring to bear the weight, by poor structure design, or by human error during the erection of the structure.  The evening’s concert was cancelled.  The Reggio Calabria public prosecutor’s office has opened an inquiry and placed the entire structure under judicial seizure. Firefighters who provided assistance at the scene are seeking to establish the dynamics and causes of the incident.  Forensic police scientists have also been called in.

The stage for the Laura Pausini concert was the middle sized unit of three different stages used by the Faenza-born singer.  The stage set-up required fifteen articulated trucks to transport all the equipment.



 
At 1:00 you can clearly see the broken sport court flooring that could have possibly initiated the collapse.

This fatality comes just three months after a 20-year-old man was killed preparing the stage for a show by Italian rock star Jovanotti in Trieste.  (http://theatresafetyblog.blogspot.com/2011/12/stage-truss-collapse-in-italy-kills-one.html).

Looking at these pictures and correlating them to images of other similar truss collapses shows that they almost never fall straight down, but instead topple to one side as the corner joints give-way.  More attention needs to be placed on diagonal bracing to help prevent this type of failure mode.

For those of you rigging these types of structures:  it's time to review the proper assembly instructions with the manufacturers and make sure that all the parts are being installed properly.  Checking load limits (not guessing - actually calculating real loads) and checking the structure components for signs of stress, like kinks, cracks, and metal fractures should be done for each and every build.

Audience Platform Collapse Injures 30

Stockholm, Sweden - Friday, March 2nd, 2012 — A section of a VIP platform collapsed during a performance by Swedish disc jockey Avicii at the Globe Arena.  About 30 people fell some 4 meters (~13 feet) when the floor of the structure caved in.  Police spokeswoman Inger Qvennerstedt says about 20 concertgoers age between 15 and 17 were taken to hospital.  She says most of the injuries were minor, but one was "very serious."

Organizers say a second performance by Avicii scheduled for Friday was canceled.  The cause of the collapse was not immediately clear.

The video posted on YouTube shows a very enthusiastic crowd jumping up and down in sync to the beat of the music, which can create tremendous live loading on a structure.  The camera finally pans down to show the gaping hole in the platform at around the 1:20 marker.  Note how visibly the security staff is dressed!

More information can be found at: http://www.beatmyday.com/2012/03/03/platform-collapse-during-avicii-gig-at-globe-arena-stockholm/

This is Our Summer of Discontent - Storm at Pukkelpop Festival Kills 5, Injures Over 140

2011-08-18 - Mother Nature racked-up another one today in Hasselt, Belgium.  A sever storm with high winds, hail up to 1/2" diameter, and LOTS of water made a shambles of the festival grounds and surrounding area.  There are trees uprooted and broken like toothpicks (and these are BIG trees, too), and reports of at least four stages and many tents destroyed.  Early pictures and videos show shredded tents, bent metal, and a crowd management nightmare.  More pictures here.
There were an estimated 60,000 people attending the shows, so there were few places to get in out of the down-poor and wind.  Many of those places were of questionable structural integrity being tents and portable buildings.  This was the first day of a three-day festival, and the venue was turned into mud and flooded areas in less than ten minutes.  Promoters attempted to bring-in mobile cranes to lift some of the damaged structures, but they had to postpone doing so because the heavy cranes were sinking into the soft ground.

One of those who watched a tent collapse was Laura Elegeert, 17, of Saint-Nicolas, Belgium.  She said "It was utter confusion, mass panic. People were trying to get out of this tent that collapsed by using their pocket knives and cutting holes in the fabric."

At a news conference Friday, Hasselt officials and festival organizers described weather conditions at the event's opening day as exceptional and said weather forecasters had not predicted a storm of that intensity.
The Belgian weather service refused to give the exact speed of the wind, saying only that the storm was "violent."

Images of the stage wings toppled-over show huge flat sail-like surfaces and no apparent counter-ballasts to secure the framework.
Skin, the lead singer of Skunk Anansie, which was performing on the main stage when the storm hit, described the chaos on the band's Facebook page. He said "a burning hot sunny day turned into a mini-hurricane."
"(A) tower fell onto our truck, we had to run for our lives mid-set as hail hit the stage and the wind began to tear it to pieces," he wrote. "This was the scariest moment I have ever seen or felt in my 20 years of being an artist."
ABC News coverage:  http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory?id=14334480
Arial photos of the festival grounds the following day.  This really shows the scale of the event and the broad swath of downed trees, tents, and staging. http://album.hbvl.be/foto-album/p/3/ravage-na-drama-op-pukkelpop-luchtbeelden.aspx
This festival, and others in the region have incurred deaths in the past.  In 2000, nine people were crushed to death and 43 injured during a Pearl Jam concert, and last year 20 were killed and 342 injured during the Love Parade Festival in Duisberg, Germany.
Summer's not over yet, so let's all be careful out there!  Do you have a clear plan for a weather event?  Where to go?  Who to meet? Who to Call? When to 'call' the show?

Updates on Indiana State Fair

Here are some more postings by fellow bloggers to read-up on this tragic event:
Meteorological Musings by Mike Smith:
http://meteorologicalmusings.blogspot.com/2011/08/fundamental-problem-at-indiana-state.html
http://meteorologicalmusings.blogspot.com/2011/08/horror-in-indianapolis.html
Severe Weather Blog by Jon Davies:
http://davieswx.blogspot.com/2011/08/81311-indiana-stage-collapse-example-of.html
Control Geek Blog by John Huntington:
www.ControlGeek.net
Jim On Light Blog by Jim Hutchison:
www.jimonlight.com/2011/08/17/help-a-killed-and-an-injured-brother-in-the-indiana-state-fair-stage-collapse-hoosierstatecollapse-please-rt/
National Public Radio (NPR) by Joel Rose:
www.npr.org/blogs/therecord/2011/08/17/139721112/who-is-inspecting-outdoor-stages
www.npr.org/2011/08/17/139725599/safety-in-question-with-growing-outdoor-concerts?ps=r
Crowd Management Strategies web site by Paul Werthheimer:
Time To Rethink "Rain Or Shine" Mentality? - www.crowdsafe.com/new.asp?ID=2075

What If The Indiana Governor Is Correct? - www.crowdsafe.com/new.asp?ID=2077

Indiana State Fair Official: "He" Did It. - www.crowdsafe.com/new.asp?ID=2078
More news about the Indiana State Fair:
Gov. Daniels hires outside firm to review fair procedures: www.wthr.com/story/15293118/gov-daniels-hires-outside-firm-to-review-fair-procedures and; www.indystar.com/article/20110819/NEWS15/108190339

Engineers question cross bracing on State Fair stage: www.wthr.com/story/15286083/engineers-question-cross-bracing-on-state-fair-stage (a really good comparison of this year's stage to a prior year's stage)
Weather Assessment by MSNBC:   www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44166368/ns/weather/#.TkteS2FICcE
6th and 7th victims die in weeks following the incident:
www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/20/us-indiana-fair-toll-idUSTRE77J02B20110820
www.wthr.com/story/15307336/seventh-person-dies-from-fair-collapse

Survivor Update:
September 21, 2011 - State Fair incident victim awakens from coma.  News story at:
http://heraldbulletin.com/local/x94880346/Pendleton-woman-injured-in-state-fair-stage-collapse-wakes-from-coma-writes-messages-to-loved-ones
October 27, 2011 - Stagehand recounts the event.  News story at:
www.wthr.com/story/15893812/stagehand-recounts-sugarland-stage-collapse

Legal Proceedings Update:
September 2012, PLSN Magazine, Memorial erected at incident site, No settlement agreed upon, Another incident occurs on fairgrounds one day before anniversary.
http://digitaleditiononline.com/display_article.php?id=1172084