Indiana stage collapse: Company, fair commission, union are fined

 

After an investigation of last summer’s deadly stage collapse at the Indiana State Fair, Indiana workplace officials have cited the company that built the stage, the state commission that runs the fair,  and the union that worked at the site for a variety of shortcomings.

The report was prepared by the Indiana Occupational Safety and Health Administration, part of the Indiana Department of Labor, which released the report Wednesday.

The agency levied fines against all three entities for their roles in the Aug. 13 collapse of the outdoor stage during a powerful storm. The country duo Sugarland was performing when the stage went down, killing seven people and injuring 58.

The largest fine was levied against the company in charge of building the stage. Mid-America Sound Corp. was given three violations for acting with “indifference” by failing to provide appropriate supervision and by failing to develop a risk assessment plan. The total fine was $63,000.

“The evidence demonstrated that the Mid-America Sound Corp. was aware of the appropriate requirements and demonstrated a plain indifference to complying with those requirements,” Labor Commissioner Lori Torres told reporters during a telephone news conference.

Mid-America did not immediately respond to a telephone call for comment.

The State Fair Commission, the state body that runs the fair, was fined $6,300.

“The State Fair Commission failed to have conducted an adequate life safety evaluation and plan prior to the event,” Torres said. “The commission simply did not establish and maintain conditions of work for its employees that were reasonably safe and free from recognized hazards.”

Also cited was Local 30 of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees and Theatrical Payroll Services Inc., which was fined $11,500. Torres said the union “clearly acted as an employer” at the site -- a contention with which the union disagreed and said it would appeal.

“We aren’t the employer,” John F. Baldwin, the business representative of Local 30, said Wednesday in a telephone interview. “We were acting under their supervision,” he said of the state agency. “They supervise us through one of their sub-contractors.”

Baldwin said nine of his members were among the injured and two remain in serious condition and unable to return to work. Stagehand Nathan Byrd was among those killed during the accident.

The state OSHA cited the union for failing to consider soil conditions when placing cable anchor points for the grandstand stage. The OSHA report investigated workplace violations but was not aimed at determining what caused the collapse.

State officials have hired two out-of-state companies to review the accident and the state's emergency response. Those reports are pending.

Torres said among the problems was that fair officials didn't have an adequate plan for evacuating the area as the severe storm approached.

“Plan or no plan, the wind blew over the stage structure,” she said. “It was their duty to evacuate in a timely” manner.

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Video: Sugarland pays tribute to stage collapse victims.

Indiana secretary of state convicted of voter fraud

After deliberating for 12 hours, an Indiana jury early Saturday morning found the state's top elections official, Charlie White, guilty of six of seven felony charges related to voter fraud.

White, who was elected Indiana's secretary of state in 2010, had been accused -- among other things -- of lying about his address on voter registration forms. He was indicted in March, two months after being sworn into office.

As the case unwound, White kept his post.  

The indictment alleged that White was living outside of the district of the Fishers Town Council where he served and continued drawing a salary. It also accused him of voting in the wrong district during the May 2010 primary.

Around 2 a.m. Saturday, the Hamilton County jury convicted White of false registration, voting in another precinct, submitting a false ballot, theft and two counts of perjury. The theft charge stems from the salary he received while living outside the district. He was acquitted on a more serious fraud charge, the Associated Press reported.

About an hour after the conviction, Gov. Mitch Daniels appointed Jerry Bonnet as interim secretary of state. 

"I have chosen not to make a permanent appointment today out of respect for the judge’s authority to lessen the verdict to a misdemeanor and reinstate the elected office holder," Daniels said in a statement. "If the felony convictions are not altered, I anticipate making a permanent appointment quickly."

Prosecutors argued that White used his ex-wife's address instead of a condo he had with his fiancee because he didn't want to give up his $1,000-per-month Fishers Town Council salary after moving out of that district, the Associated Press said.

White, 42, has said the charges ignored a complicated personal life in which he was trying to raise his 10-year-old son, plan his second marriage and campaign for the statewide office he won that November. He said he stayed at his ex-wife's house when he wasn't on the road campaigning and did not live in the condo until after he remarried.

A date has not yet been set for sentencing. White's lawyers, however, have indicated they will attempt to reduce to the felony convictions to misdemeanors.

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Photo: Indiana Secretary of State Charlie White, shown in a file photo, listens to a question during an Indiana Recount Commission hearing in Indianapolis. Credit: Darron Cummings/Associated Press