Fines Levied, Accusations Fly

Indiana’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration levied more than $80,000 in fines in connection with the deadly state fair concert stage collapse Aug. 13. And in response, one of those fined – Mid-America Sound Corp. – released a portion of a deposition suggesting Sugarland resisted delaying its ill-fated concert that night.

Mid-America, which was fined $63,000 by IOSHA, released a portion of a deposition by Indiana State Fair Commission Executive Director Cindy Hoye in which she testified that a representative for a concert promotion company working with the fair twice approached Sugarland about the fair’s desire to delay the show in the face of inclement weather.

Hoye testified Jan. 16 that the band expressed concerns about how a delay would affect the time lead singer Jennifer Nettles needed to warm up and complicate the band’s travel to its next show at the Iowa State Fair.

“They were trying to get to Iowa to play the Iowa State Fair, and so they said they did not want to delay,” Hoye testified as part of a lawsuit filed against Mid-America Sound, which built the roof and rigging used to hold the lights and sound equipment used in the concert. In addition to the fine, Mid-America was cited for three serious violations of industry standards, which IOSHA said contributed to the collapse that killed seven and injured 58 others.

Hoye said the fair offered to pay for extra stagehands in Des Moines to reduce the time needed to set up the stage, but the band declined.

Myra Borshoff Cook, a spokeswoman for Mid-America, said the company released Hoye’s comments because “we thought it was important for people to see the bigger picture.”

Sugarland was not penalized, though the band has been named in some lawsuits over the accident. The agency said the band didn’t employ the workers and wasn’t responsible for building the stage.

State Labor Commissioner Lori Torres said IOSHA’s report, the first of three independent investigations into the collapse, was intended to improve workplace safety.

The report said Mid-America failed to adequately address safety standards, fair officials didn’t sufficiently plan for emergencies and were too slow to order an evacuation of the grounds as a powerful storm approached, and IATSE Local 30 failed to adequately train members how to work at heights or provide them with fall protection.

The Indiana State Fair Commission was fined $6,300 for failing to conduct proper safety evaluations of its concert venues. And IATSE was fined $11,500 for five workplace violations.

The report found that the union, not the commission, was the employer of the stagehands who were working the night of the collapse. But union attorney Bill Groth called that “absurd.”

“Local 30 feels it is being scapegoated by this administration, whose agents’ own gross negligence in failing to vacate the premises in the face of the imminent storm cannot be explained away,” Groth said in an email to the Associated Press.

Torres said the agency determined the union was the stagehands’ employer because it selected the workers for the job and filed W-2s, workers compensation and other documents, among other factors. Stagehand Nathan Byrd was among those killed in the collapse.

Jeff Carter, IOSHA’s deputy commissioner, said the union had indicated it would contest the findings and state fair officials had requested a meeting with IOSHA officials. Mid-America had not responded, he said.

The company said it told the fair commission and Sugarland about the temporary roof’s limitations in severe weather, advising that the area be evacuated in the event of lightning or winds topping 40 mph. Those warnings were reiterated the night of the concert, the statement said.

Despite that, they “refused to postpone the concert and failed to implement an evacuation plan away from the temporary roof structure.”