State Fair Changes Unlikely Soon

Without the results of an independent investigation into the deadly stage collapse at the Indiana State Fair in August, it’s unlikely any state laws will be changed in the next year, House speaker Brian Bosma says.

The only legislative proposal to be floated to date is a change to raise the state’s liability cap from $5 million to closer to $15 million – and even that faces opposition from state Republicans who say it amounts to a handout to trial lawyers.

Bosma said it’s too early to make any changes without knowing who’s to blame for the collapse. “I think we’re going to have a pretty healthy debate about whether the legislature should take a ‘ready-aim-fire’ approach,” Bosma said.

Experts and state officials have suggested a multitude of reasons for the collapse of the grandstand stage Aug. 13 as thousands of fans awaited a concert by Sugarland.

Meteorologists have said fair officials should have known that straight-line winds like the gusts that toppled that stage routinely precede major thunderstorms. The brother of a stagehand who died said his brother routinely complained about the stage’s integrity before the fatal day.

Two independent firms separately investigating the fair’s emergency preparations and the stage’s structural integrity are not expected to deliver reports until spring 2012, and likely after Indiana lawmakers have recessed.

State Fair Executive Director Cindy Hoye told members of the Legislature’s fair advisory committee last week that although Witt Associates has finished much of its work assessing the state’s emergency preparations, it will wait to release its report until the engineering firm Thornton Tomasetti completes its work closer to April.

“I want be very careful before we get into changing any laws,” said Sen. James Merritt, a 14-year veteran of the legislature’s State Fair Advisory Committee. He expects lawmakers to discuss the stage collapse extensively but said any proposals probably wouldn’t make their way to the governor’s desk until 2013.

That is not likely to appease victims of the collapse. Families of the dead and injured want answers; as of Oct. 21, 66 tort claims announcing intentions to sue had been filed with the state.