Stage Collapses Before Sugarland Concert Killing at Least 4

By On 08/14/2011 · 55 Comments · In American Idol

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UPDATE: A 5th person has died.  Jennifer Nettles released a statement, saying that Sugarland is  “stunned and heartbroken for the fans and their families in Indiana. We hold those injured in our prayers at this very sad time. There are no words. It is tragic.” Also, added tweets from Idols reacting to the tragedy. Plus, a new video of the stage collapse

This is terrible news.  A gust of wind brought down a stage at the Indiana Stage fair tonight, killing at least 4 and injuring 24.  The country band, Sugarland, were about to take the stage when it happened.  The video at the bottom of the page shows the stage suddenly collapse. Read a news report from CNN below:

(CNN) — A massive gust of wind brought down a stage at the Indiana State Fair on Saturday night, killing at least four and injuring 24, officials said.

Authorities said they feared more casualties.

“A big gust of wind came through. You could see a lot of people panicking. All the scaffolding and speakers — all that came crashing down — and the whole stand just collapsed,” said Aaron Richman, who witnessed the collapse at the Indiana State Fairgrounds in Indianapolis.

Allison Hoehn said many rushed to those trapped after the stage crumbled.

“We tried to get down to help, but no one was moving,” Hoehn said. “The storm came on so fast and the stage just snapped like a toothpick.

“Everyone rushed to help and we saw people searching and pulling people out. (I) saw five people go away on stretchers. It was amazing how many people ran in to try to lift the scaffolding.”

The Indianapolis Department of Public Safety posted on its Twitter page the death toll and said that 24 people had been taken to area hospitals.

Two local hospitals placed the number of injured at 43, including some walk-in patients.

Capt. Brad Weaver, commander of special operations for the Indiana State Police, said he took the stage at 8:45 p.m. to warn the audience of severe weather.

Ten minutes later, the wind gust blew through.

He said he “saw the framework from the stage start to come over.”

He said he and others took cover behind a trailer, which was also struck by debris from the stage.

Singer Sara Bareilles had finished her set at the Hoosier Lottery Grandstand stage when the wind knocked down the rigging on to the stage.

“I’m speechless and feel so helpless,” Bareilles said on her Twitter page. “My heart aches for the lives lost.”

The show’s headliner, country music duo Sugarland, was to take the stage next.

“We are stunned and heartbroken for the fans and their families in Indiana.” said Sugarland singer Jennifer Nettles. “We hold those injured in our prayers at this very sad time. There are no words. It is tragic.”

Thoughts and prayers go out to those affected and their friends and families.

A few Idols posted their condolences on twitter.

David Cook tweeted, “Awful news about what happened at the Indiana State Fair.  Thoughts are with all those affected.” 

Jordin Sparks tweeted, “OMG. I have no words. Please #pray for those who were at the fair in Indy. “ 

Kelly Clarkson posted, “Just saw video footage of the stage collapsing at Sugarland’s show in Indiana. Oh my gosh that is maybe one of scariest things I’ve ever seen. I pray everybody on their crew and the band is okay. …I’m not sure what news is correct or not but I heard the people that died or got injured were fans. Please keep all of their families in your prayers. What a horrible thing to happen.” 

Paul McDonald tweeted, “Very sad news about the stage collapse at the Indiana State Fair. My thoughts and prayers go out to all the victims and their families.”

Didi Benami tweeted, “praying for everyone at the concert in Indianapolis. Oh my Goodness. I’m speechless. Praying for healing for those lost & those injured.”

Chris Daughtry tweeted, “Wow! Just saw video of Indiana State fair stage collapse! We’re played that stage! So horrible!”

Crystal Bowersox tweeted, “Omg so sad for the fans and friends and families…”

Kris Allen tweets, “Horrible what happened at the Indy State Fair. Praying for the families of the people that lost their loved ones.”

 
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  • mandabutter

    So devastating. My thoughts and prayers go out to everyone affected. The news reports and first hand accounts from witnesses were tragic enough…but that 2nd video is heartbreaking. Did they clear the right hand section first? All those seats were empty.

    I know of micro bursts like that. We had a tornado in the town over in 2001 that brought a straight-line wind and uprooted a 50yr old tree in our front yard. Scary.
    Rascal Flatts had a stage setup like this one at an outdoor concert (coastal Florida) I attended last year. We drove thru a thunderstorm getting there, I was sweating bullets waiting for the show to start. We were in the 2nd row and nothing happened. It was nothing short of a miracle.

  • mandabutter

    Kirsten says:
    08/14/2011 at 5:49 am
    How terrible,

    A stage collapsed in Ottawa last month after a gust of wind. Officials said at the time that it was a freak accident and I believed them because I didn’t recall it ever happening before. Now this happens.

    Is it just a freak coincidence or are stage collapses a fairly frequent occurrence? Or are officials ignoring the weather and pushing these concerts to go on when they should cancel them sooner? Or are some stages being poorly engineered, constructed or set up? If so, I hope better solutions are found.

    I agree. Though more regulations for temporary setups would probably make it tougher for lesser established acts and the promoters, which would trickle down to ticket buyers/fans. IDK. Safety comes first, mother nature is fickle, all valid points.

    As for how frequent (or not) it is. This is the second incident in 2.5 years I’ve heard about. There was a Canadian show (2009 or 2010) where Billy Currington played and a fan died onstage from rigging that was blown down. Country act Billy also received facial injuries.

  • Kirsten

    Though more regulations for temporary setups would probably make it tougher for lesser established acts and the promoters, which would trickle down to ticket buyers/fans. IDK. Safety comes first, mother nature is fickle, all valid points.

    They can’t have stages falling all over people at concerts. It’s supposed to be fun, not deadly. They may have to go with simpler staging if it’s too costly to make stages that won’t fall on people.

    I was suprised to hear how many times this does happen (stages falling on people). The scaffolding is scary enough, but those massive speakers are terrifying. Some of those are extremely heavy and they were way up in the rigging. That was pretty top heavy arrangement there.

    I know some people are reluctant to watch the videos, but I’m very glad that there is footage of it. That kind of stuff is extremely useful for figuring out exactly what happened, so that they can better engineer a solution.

    Also, I think it’s informative for people going to these concerts. Don’t trust your life to some clueless fair organizer who models themselves after the mayor from Jaws. I hadn’t really ever thought about the scaffolding falling on people (I didn’t pay attention to the Ottawa accident and thought the actual platform had collapsed. Just set the barriers back the height of the platform…). I’m sure some who heard about the Sugarland accident just thought “Oh, I would have run faster. Why did they just sit there?” Now, you can see they didn’t have time to run anywhere (especially since it was a crowd and you can’t run faster than the wall of people in front of you). After seeing that, if the wind picks up, I’m moving out of the fall zone before the clueless fair runner tells me to. A 60 mph wind isn’t all that rare so those set-ups should be designed to survive that.

    I would not be surprised if that large fin at the top of the stage was a contributor to this accident. Although the structure itself is necessary to support the rest of the rigging, the solid panels appear to be decorative. It would act as a sail when hit sideways by the wind and cause the scaffolding to twist. Columns don’t generally handle twisting very well. If the panels weren’t there or were lattice like the rest of the scaffolding, that might be one small improvement that would cost very little. Solid walls as opposed to lattice girders are what brought down the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. Of course, there are a lot of things that probably went wrong that day and the accident investigators will sort it out. I’m just commenting on this because there are some improvements that could probably be made that would make things safer and not necessarily be too expensive.

  • sr4mjc

    I just watched the videos. How horrific. Thoughts go out to the families and friends of those who lost their lives.

  • tomk

    One of the things that is interesting to me is that (seemingly) there wasn’t very much (if any) damage anywhere else on the fairgrounds. Seems that one violent gust of wind hit in the worst possible spot. Freakish, indeed.
    Which is not to excuse the designers – especially when you have heard of other stages falling recently. At the same time, is it reasonable to ask that the structure be able to withstand a hurricane-force straight-line wind? I guess given what happened, the answer would be yes.
    I am surprised there weren’t more deaths – yes, one death is one too many. But that seemed to be quite a large structure falling into a heavily-populated area of the fairgrounds. My only guess is that some people saw the risk of bad weather coming and headed for cover before the stage was hit.

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