INDIANAPOLIS (February 8, 2012)--The Indiana State Labor Department says the company that built the stage that collapsed last summer at the Indiana State Fair collapse showed "plain indifference" to safety standards.
Commissioner Lori Torres said Wednesday that Mid-America Sound
Corp. has been cited with three major safety violations in the collapse of outdoor stage rigging in high winds that killed seven people Aug. 13.
Torres, said the company "was aware of the appropriate requirements," but showed a "plain indifference" to complying with them.
She said the "indifference" is not the same as responsibility for the disaster.
The department fined the company $63,000.
In their report, state labor officials said the company that built the stage appeared to be indifferent to safety standards and they said fair officials didn't order an evacuation as quickly as they should have.
A crowd was gathered at the stage to see the country duo Sugarland perform when a 60 mile-per-hour gust toppled the structure.
Torres says State Fair Commission officials didn't have an adequate plan for evacuating the area as a severe thunderstorm approached.
It was fined $6,300.
The union representing stagehands was cited for five workplace violations and was fined more than $11,000.
A union attorney said the report found that the union, and not the fair commission, was the employer of the stagehands.
He said the union is being made a scapegoat.
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