I’m not surprised, but it definitely sucks. One person was killed and at least five others were severely injured when an upstage truss tipped downstage and smashed into the orchestra members performing at a park in Xuchang City, Hunan Province.
It literally appears as though that truss was built in an arch with no supports, and it just tips over onto the orchestra. It’s certainly a statement to mankind that all of those audience members and people jumped up there to lift that truss off of those poor musicians — that’s about the only thing that I can look positively on in this video.
This is another example, like last week’s example of the man in Brazil being electrocuted after climbing the truss and causing a flash with some high power lines, that regulations are important, especially in our business. There is a lot that can be learned by watching the major failures of other countries. As shameful as it is, corruption and lax regulatory structure is literally a killer.
It appears as though the horizontal truss was supported on two tower sections of truss, but it definitely doesn’t look like tower truss. It also doesn’t look like a crank tower job either. The more terrible thing is that we’ll never know what happened here, this will be covered up quickly and forgotten.
XUCHANG CITY, Hunan (CelebrityAccess) — One musician was killed and five others after a truss holding overhead stage lighting collapsed on them during a concert in China on Saturday.
The musicians were members of an orchestra performing at a public event in a park connected to Xuchang City Art Museum in the province of Hunan in central China according to a statement released by the local government.
In a graphic video of the scene, a large piece of rigging truss with multiple lights attached to it can be seen to sway over the orchestra before falling onto the performers, leaving one person dead, one person seriously injured and four more with minor injuries.
Video footage of the aftermath shows members of the audience rushing to the assistance of the bloodied performers who were trapped under the wreckage.
Authorities have begun an investigation into the cause of the accident, according to the official statement.
I’m sorry for the victims of this accident. We try hard here in the US to never have things like this happen, it is too tragic for people to die at an entertainment event. Obviously we’re not always successful, but there is certainly a hell of a lot more regulation and attention paid to prevention. It is terrible for anyone to die, but even more ridiculous to die at a performance event where you went to enjoy yourself.
