State Fair Stage Investigation

[Love the 1911]

I have a question for everyone. The State Fair stage collapse investigation is the current situation that makes me question this but it also occurs with weather investigations (tornado vs straight-line winds). Why is all the money spent to investigate something after it is over? They are estimating $1,000,000 for the investigation alone into the State Fair tragedy. I feel for everyone involved but the only thing the investigation does is to assign blame for the situation and strengthen lawsuits directed at "responsible" parties that didn't tell grown men and women to get out of the rain.

I guess that's all the ranting I have for a Saturday morning. I need to get ready for the auction to hopefully pick up some more knife-making tools.

 

[longbow]

They need to know what happened.

These stage set ups are used in many places and they don't want it to happen again. From what I know, this unit should not have failed the way it did. It was designed to take the wind that hit it.

If you think this is expensive, you should see what is spent to investigate a commercial airline crash......If they can, they will REBUILD the plane in a warehouse from the parts they collect.

It might have been set up wrong, damaged in a previous use, or overloaded. I'm aware of some other faults the system has, but since I didn't get closer than 50 feet to the items I wanted to see, I can't say for sure if that was the fault. I did get some bad pictures of the items with a telephoto lens, but will have to wait.

 

[Gabriel]

Why is all the money spent to investigate something after it is over?

Because there is nothing to investigate before it happens.

 

[fullauto 45]

Because you want to make sure it doesn't happen again. A good friend and co-worker, Glenn Goodrich, died that evening doing his part time job to help support his two young kids and a wife. For their sake, I hope they do find out WHY it happened. I hope the kids will grow up and not have to worry why dad is not there to pay the bills. While he was only one of the seven killed, that same scenario is played out for each one and their family. Then you have the injured, some of whom will never walk again. What do you tell to them?
If someone or some company was at fault, I want to see them pay out the ass. If it was built correctly and securely as it was supposed to be, then it was an act of God. A plain accident that occurred.
I for one, believe there are several things that were not done correctly and with weather condition in the area, not evacuated correctly.

 

[longbow]

These photos were taken by me to show what the west side looked after the collapse.

The closer pictures I have show faces of people that most likely don't want to be on this site so I can't use them. These are pretty generic, but you can tell what areas I want to see close up.

 

[MrsGungho]

for the layman longbow, what exactly are we looking at in the pictures?

 

[Bigum1969]

for the layman longbow, what exactly are we looking at in the pictures?

+1.

A little narrative would be great.

 

[longbow]

Broken cable connections
Cable clamps done improperly
Hoists and straps that might be a problem
How the roof was locked and secured for the concert after being hoisted up.
How the pillars were secured to the base or earth
How the truss assembly units were stacked and secured
The conditions of the straps
Cross or X bracing that might or might not have been installed

From what I have learned, the cause of the accident is going to make everyone mad. Some very simple items, training and procedures would have made a difference.

There is one wild card that the computer model is going to test that will lead to some changes in how these units are braced and tarped. That is what most of the money spent is being done to test the concern.

After the accident, many things were tossed around to get to injured and dead out. Some of the equipment was also removed to go to other events. The behind the stage area is not as it was like the areas in the pictures. I'll just leave that issue to the big boys to share.

If any of you have done any rigging or crane work, the most common screw ups for those accidents also seems to have hit this event. If any of you have inspected wire ropes, you also will know the common problems with them as they are used too many times.............

Those pictures I can not post.

 

[longbow]

To put it in one sentance....

The overall structure was not rigid enough, and when it moved to much the trusses failed and down it came.

I could list at least 75 items that might have caused it to be less rigid, but that is what the computer will identify.

I can tell you from what I was able to see, three things jumped out at me in about 5 minutes. See my previous post with my list of concerns.

 

[longbow]

??

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