Sugarland Denies Negligence in Indiana Stage Collapse that Killed Seven
Last August, a stage collapsed at the Indiana State Fair. Seven people were killed and another 40 were seriously injured. A storm brought down scaffolding into the crowd just moments before the country duo Sugarland was to go on stage to perform. Several families have sued Sugarland, saying that the group was negligent because they didn’t delay the show.
However, Sugarland contends that the accident was caused by an act of God and was a true accident. The cause of the collapse, according to Sugarland’s response to the lawsuit in papers filed with the court said that a massive gust of wind brought down the scaffolding. The band also said that they had no say or anything else to do with how the venue was constructed, nor did they have say in whether the show should continue or now.
The Indiana State Fair Commission has already paid a fine of $6,300 that was imposed on it by the safety regulators for the state. The reason for the fine is that the fair did not respond to the accident with the proper evacuation procedure. There is also another $80,800 in penalties that have been handed down by the Indiana Department of Labor (IDOL). Those penalties have been levied against the state fair and several companies that the IDOL says did not comply with required safety precautions.
Documents filed with the court in various lawsuits over the accident contain varying accounts of what happened. The executive director of the fair, Cynthia Hoye, said that she sent one of the show’s promoters to try and get Sugarland to delay the show. Hoye says that each time the promoter came back, the answer was the same – Sugarland wanted to perform. Sugarland’s tour manager, Helen Rollins, said that no one contacted the band about delaying the performance.
