Do you or anyone else have any pictures of the collapse that I can get e-mailed to me so I can use it in my Rigging Class at:
the Rigstar Training and Testing Center. It would be greatly appreciated. E-mail to: steve@rigstar.com

I am collecting as many rigging accidents pictures as possible to drive home to all that come to my rigging cours, that competency is very important for everyones safety as possible.
Thanks. from Steven Kendall, www.rigstar.com

You know, I finally got off my butt and registered on the site, instead of just lurking, so I could get up to date on this after someone told me about these posts.

Seems to me there was an accident, how minor/major is in dispute. Whose fault is in dispute. What exactly happened is in dispute.

Doesn't it seem reasonable to just say, there was an accident on this show. It would be a good idea to watch yourself, and all your brothers and sisters when working on this show. Double check everything. Discuss issues you see with others, and especially THOSE IN CHARGE, before taking action, or performing a task whose safety considerations are concerning you.

I seem to recall saying "it's all about the show" on more than a few occasions. That's what got me in the biz and keeps me here now.

I don't care if you are road or local, everyone hears horror stories about one from the other, and, fortunately, hears tales of going above and beyond the call as well. If you are one of the ones who didn't do what s/he should have, then hopefully you are smart enough to know, and you will either buck up, or buck off, and let the rest of us continue to take pride in our work, share quality experiences with our brothers and sisters, and above all put on great shows.

This show is scheduled to be in my area later this summer. I will probably be working the call. I will be watching my behind, and those of the local and road crew I am working with. I am by no means a senior hand, but I believe I am smart enough to know when what I am being told to do may not be right or safe. I know that I should question that instruction, and I know that if I still feel uneasy I can take it to the steward of the call or higher. Above all I am looking forward to a great show, renewing old acquaintances, and making some new ones, and I sure as hell am NOT planning on sending someone home in a paramedic unit.

Please, everyone calm down, stop slinging blame, there are officials to do that for us if it is deemed necessary. Take a step back, a deep breath, and give thanks no-one was more seriously hurt. I am sure by the time the tour makes it here, things will have changed, and if they haven't, then we know what we are in for and what to look out for.

Peace.

Hey Brothers and Sisters,
I can't believe what I am reading.
We all "proclaim" to be on the same side, reflected in our membership in this community. When one of us gets hurt (whether seriously or not) we should all take a moment to "raise a glass" that this bro./sis. wasn't killed instead.

To many times we point at this or that, he or she as being at fault. When we as "Professionals" should ourselves be taking the responsibility to ensure all of the calls we are on are as safe as we can make them(yours truly included).

Having worked in this business all of my adult life as both "the road guy" and now "the local hand" I as we all have seen ALOT of situations that were unsafe. When somthing goes south(as it will) I try to always look back and see if there was something I saw or heard that could have helped to prevent the given situation.

Bottom line it is our personal responsibility to keep our eyes and ears open to potentially unsafe events around us on a call.

So in closing here is a glass raised to our injured brother in So Cal. Heal quickly...we need you out here.

Greg "crease" Cox RFL

Jesus christ.
nobody that is a "stagehand" is just a "stagehand"
well, some people are....
we are all on the same side.
what the hell are you guys doing?

be careful is all that needs to be said.
scetchy *o*o*p*s* we do.
I got hurt, wasn't my fault totally the other dudes fault. I ain't pointing fingers. Suck what good is left to the story out and move on people. unless, you just want to fight about it. one on one I will go toe to toe with anyone. I am pretty easy to spot, just don't be a bitch and sucker punch me. see ya in orange county fellas.
hugs and kisses
Tim

I don't know how many calls you do - I am not sure where you find the time to *o*o*p*s* around with this *o*o*p*s*. This is a clear case of the locals rushing to get this out without direction. I never heard the gaff call for anything other than the genie lift to secure the tent. you should be thanking him it wasn't any worse.....

Try reading a little more than the first sentence in each paragraph before you fly off the handle and make yourself an ass.

PLEASE, DO NOT POST A COMMENT ABOUT A THREAD, UNLESS YOU HAVE READ IT.

this is for old _toby. you are a disgrace to the roadie world and human life. To think that you are a person, to let someone get hurt. If you are the one to blame, then if I was the dude that got hurt, when I got better I would come and find your *o*o*p*s*ing ass and beat the living *o*o*p*s* out of you.And to all of the so called high ups that were giving orders and the so called exp. riggers,you should have *o*o*p*s*ing sense to say "HEY" you don't do it that way.I've worked on many shows and worked with alot of dumbasses but you sir are the lowest piece of *o*o*p*s* I ever heard of. You put people's lives at stake BECAUSE YOU ARE A LAZY PIECE OF *o*o*p*s*!YOU SHOULD BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR ALL CHARGES AND BLACKBALLED FROM BEING A PERSON AND A SO CALLED ROADIE RIGGER! Thank you for your time. Sincerely,Daniel

OKÖ the facts in this incident seem to be getting more inflated as the days go by. People are getting angry and taking sides. Iím getting tired of the hearsay and the over opinionated people who werenít there.

Listen, NO ONE DIED! No one was crippled for life. The injured hand was taken to the hospital then went home to, by the look of it, spend a couple of painful weeks recovering.

The structure in question is made of flat aluminum z-bar truss (2î pipe top and bottom with trussing in between) in 20 foot sections spaced about 4 feet apart joined at the top with similar trussing, then skinned with a heavy duty tarp. Some call it a tent, some call it an awning. I called it a roof. In any case, the thing about 20í by 30í and probably weighs 300 to 400 pounds, and its impact on the stage at the points of collision damaged the steel frame of the stage beyond repair. Call it whatever you want.

As far as who is to blameÖ I am. Only one of the safety punch-list items I mentioned in the original story did I actually do something about (attaching the ramps to the stage with c-clamps or ratchet straps). The rest of those things I let slide. ìI did enoughî, I thought. After all I had provided my own personal c-clamp from my own personal tools. I blame myself. You see, I wasnít doing everything I could to improve the safety of the stage, surrounding deck, and work areas. I was lazy.

Theater craft is statistically one of the most dangerous occupations, right up there with crab fishing, iron working, and fire fighting. Stages are hazardous places and great care must be taken to prevent mishap and injury. Putting on a show is a team event, and all of the players must work together not only to build, operate, and strike the show efficiently, but also to do these things in the safest way possible.

Yes, the road guy gave the order to remove the bracing too early, and that was wrong. However, the IA guys climbed up and did it without question and without a thought to the consequences of their actions. After interviewing several people who were directly connected to the work events surrounding the incident, it came to light that several people saw the error in the process and failed to make their concerns vocal enough, or alert those who had the gaff. Lazy.

Who is better, the road guys, or the local crew? Who cares? I saw plenty of green on both sides of the fence. However there were plenty of veteran IATSE Journeymen and road guys with skills to spare. Many of the fellows on the road crew were guys that I recognized from past shows, some of them I have seen every season for many years. (The show electrician and myself had a funny conversation, even, about how he and I both had been working stages professionally since we were teenagers.) All I am trying to say is that there was plenty of talent in the room. If you want to point fingers at someone why donít you think about what YOU could have done to prevent such an incident and apply that to your professional life.

I wrote the original story, not to accuse anyone of negligence, or to bad mouth road guys and local crews. All I wanted to do was alert anyone who would have to be dealing with the various hazards of this show, and encourage them to pay close attention to what is going on and keep an open eye to them.

Too many of my fellow stage hands and good friends are permanently crippled or dead as a result of incidents that were beyond their control, but within the control of another. As a matter of fact, one more crippling injury and I will be able to fill my right hand with my dead and crippled associates.

Weíve got a long and busy season ahead of us, folks. Lets work together to see that we are all still here at the end of it. If anyoneís feathers were unnecessarily ruffled as a result of my writings, I do apologize. However, when it comes to preventing accidents and taking a stand for safety and professionalism the only regret I will harbor is not being loud enough.

Have a great season, and take care.

I saw the whole thing and how it wet down. What this guy is saying is bull *o*o*p*s*. First of all it was a tent over the loading dock that fell not a roof. The reason it fell from what I gathered from the road guy was because some of the crew were working ahead without direction and removed a lot of the structure pieces that was holding this tent together. When the road guy stepped onto the loading dock and noticed the tent just hanging there I heard him tell everyone to get off the dock - I then saw him drag a genie lift over to try and support the tent and just as he was lifting it up to tie the tent off when it came down. The guys were taking there sweet ass time to get off the stage. it sucks when some one gets caught up in this *o*o*p*s* but from what I was told the dude was at home burnin' green and suckin on a cold one right after.....the moral of the story kids is don't work on your own....the road guy did his best to save it...kudos bro!!!!!
By the way I've worked on a lot of tomcat systems and this stage blows it outa the water!!!! it' quick and easy....

this is the advance stage they are supplying the whole show and all the tours gear. they have two stages leapfrogging. bad communication is not the case. no communication was the problem. Hope you are doing better Bailey we are all thinking about you in the OC . the whole thing could have been avoided with two ropes and maybe 10 or 20 guys, that were just standing around, helping out. no one was taking the lead.
road guy told my buddy to undo the safetys he didn't tell anyone else though. we were 30 seconds away from hanging safetys from a hoist that we went through the trouble of setting on the stage just for the purpose of making it safe. they almost killed the hoist guy too. my guitar player and best friend was under this thing along with a lot of the locals that are my friends too. from where I saw it I thought we were scraping Roy up with a shovel I cannot believe everyone lived through it.
the show guy damn near killed my friends and local guys are the only reason it didn't happen you prick.
those local guys out there kick ass and everyone knows it. there were a lot of green dudes on the call but they didn't *o*o*p*s* anything up. the show guy gave the order he knows who he is I am sure he drank a lot that night to try and forget what he had done. I hope Bailey gets a million dollars for it.

GIVE ME A BREAK. Is the tour even travelling with there own stage? or is like 99.9% of tours that hires the roof and stage locally? My guess this is entirely in the hands of the locals, and/or promoter, not the roadies. IF the locals suck the locals suck!!