Features
Live Nation Challenges Stage Collapse Case
More than four years after the Radiohead stage collapse at Downsview Park in Toronto, Ontario, one of the companies on trial for the deadly incident wants the case thrown out because the legal proceedings are taking too long.
Photo: AP Photo
Photo shows stage before it collapsed at the site for a Radiohead concert at Downsview Park in Toronto.
David McCaskill, the Crown lawyer representing the provincial Ministry of Labour in the case, confirmed that Live Nation has applied to have the case dismissed because of “unreasonable delay.”
The motion is scheduled to be heard at Old City Hall in Toronto Oct. 14 in front of Justice Shaun Nakatsuru, according to the Hamilton Spectator. The incident happened June 16, 2012, just hours before a Radiohead concert at the north Toronto park. Scott Johnson, a 33-year-old drum tech travelling with the band, was crushed to death when the roof above the stage fell.
Three others were also injured. Nearly a year later, the Ministry of Labour laid 13 charges against Live Nation, Optex Staging and Dominic Cugliari, an engineer from Bolton, Ontario. Johnson’s father, Ken, told the Toronto Star in a series of emails Oct. 7 that his family was enraged by the application to have the case dismissed. Johnson’s parents live in northern England, and Ken said he would like to travel to Toronto to attend next week’s hearing but can’t afford it.
“I have to be Scott’s voice in this case” he said. “Any sympathy I had has gone and we get more and more angry at the deflection of blame … They seem to have forgotten that Scott is now dead for a very long time, which is highly offensive to us.”
Live Nation declined to comment because of the ongoing litigation, the Spectator said. The trial began last year and was originally scheduled for 15 days in June 2015 and 15 days that November, Ken said.
That carried over into another 15 days of hearings that were spread out over April, May and June of this year. McCaskill previously said he expects the trial to be finished by January once the defendants present their cases, the paper said.
The ministry alleges that Live Nation failed to ensure the stage structure was designed and built to support all likely loads and forces or that it was adequately braced.
It also accuses the company of failing to make sure there were no excessive loads on the structure. Optex Staging was charged with four counts of failing to ensure the stage was being built in a safe manner. Cugliari is accused of endangering a worker.