By Rick Callahan
The Associated Press
INDIANAPOLIS — The stage rigging that collapsed and killed seven people during last summer’s Indiana State Fair wasn’t up to industry standards and the tragedy was compounded by the lack of a fully developed emergency plan, according to two reports released Thursday.
During a 90-minute presentation to the Indiana State Fair Commission, representatives of engineering firm Thornton Tomasetti and emergency planning advisers Witt Associates detailed the results of their separate investigations into the Aug. 13 collapse, which happened just before the country duo Sugarland was to perform and which also injured dozens of people.
Fair organizers were not legally required to have the stage inspected because it was a temporary structure, Thornton Tomasetti reported. But company vice president Scott Nacheman told the commission that the metal rigging structure didn’t meet the industry standard, which would require it to be able to withstand wind gusts of 68 mph. Gusts reached an estimated 59 mph when the rigging collapsed, he said.
The company determined that parts of the rigging’s support system began to give way at wind gusts of 33 mph and that by the time the gusts reached 43 mph, the structure could no longer support itself.
“Once gravity had taken over there was essentially no way the structure could support itself,” Nacheman said. “Gravity takes over and the structure fails.”
The report says the stage structure had support wires attached to concrete barriers used as ballast to hold it in place, but that the system was inadequate to withstand lateral forces such as high winds.
The state hired Thornton Tomasetti to review the stage structure and Washington-based Witt Associates to investigate the fair’s emergency plans and response.
Charlie Fisher, a vice president for Witt Associates, told the commission that “an ambiguity of authority” resulted in confusion and uncertainty as officials discussed whether to postpone a concert just before strong winds blew stage rigging onto waiting fans.
He said fair organizers’ overall state of preparedness “was not adequate” for an event that size, their emergency response plan and procedures weren’t fully developed, and they didn’t utilize the plans they did have on the night of the collapse.
Kenneth Mallette, vice president of preparedness services at Witt Associates, said weather conditions had been a topic of discussion and analysis throughout the day. He said a fair representative asked Sugarland’s tour manager to delay the start of the show, but the band resisted, its tour manager saying, “It’s only rain. We can play.”
About 20 minutes later, State police Capt. Brad Weaver, who was backstage, expressed concerns about the approaching weather and urged fair Executive Director Cindy Hoye to shut down the concert minutes before the collapse, Mallette said.
“We need to call this. We need to call this off,” Weaver told Hoye, according to Mallette.
Hoye nodded in agreement, but by the time they were heading to the stage to cancel the show, the rigging collapsed, Mallette said.
Fair commission Chairman Andre Lacy said Hoye had offered to resign but that he asked her to stay on in her position. He said the fair’s leadership has much to learn and improve upon but stressed that the investigations weren’t meant to assign blame for the collapse.
“We put ourselves willingly and publicly under the microscope in hopes of preventing a tragedy like that which happened Aug. 13,” Lacy said.
Hoye said the findings couldn’t change the past but that she hopes will serve as a model for other fairs in Indiana and elsewhere.
“Hindsight is an incredible teacher, and that’s all we have right now,” she said.
Gov. Mitch Daniels said the state would share the reports’ findings “with any state who will listen.” Those discussions will begin with a meeting on national safety standards for outdoor temporary stages and structures scheduled later this month in Indianapolis.
“We’d give anything to have that night over, but occasionally something positive can come out of terrible tragedy, and we have to do all we can to make that happen here,” Daniels said.
Thursday’s findings are expected to provide key information for several lawsuits filed against Sugarland and companies involved with building the stage. Singer Jennifer Nettles was schedule to give a deposition Thursday in West Virginia, and fellow band member Kristian Bush was to testify Friday.
The duo issued a statement Thursday through spokesman Allan Mayer.
“There is no one who wants to get to the bottom of what happened more than we do,” the statement said. “We want all the facts to come out, not only for the sake of all the victims and their loved ones, but also so we can make sure that nothing like this ever happens again.”