Posted on 07/06/2003 2:38:08 PM PDT by ItsBacon
Fallen frame was unsecured
Inquirer Staff Writers
The 650-pound wood frame that toppled onto a stageful of dignitaries at the National Constitution Center's opening was not secured at its top or its base, and had never been inspected, according to an official close to the investigation of the accident.
In addition, the official and other sources said, there was no run-through or rehearsal of the ceremony, though such rehearsals are standard practice in stagecraft.
Those were among the details that emerged yesterday about the incident on Friday, which left Mayor Street, Sen. Arlen Specter and three other people slightly injured, and turned the opening of the $137.5 million center into a national embarrassment for Philadelphia.
The FBI will take the lead role in investigating the accident, Nikki Credic, spokeswoman for the U.S. Marshals Service, said last night. But Linda Vizi, the FBI's Philadelphia spokeswoman, said last night that the FBI would get involved only if there appear to be violations of federal criminal law.
The collapse sent Street, Constitution Center president Joseph Torsella, Chief U.S. District Judge James T. Giles, and a court worker to the hospital, though none had serious injuries. The frame narrowly missed Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor as she sat at the microphone.
Street, taking a prescription painkiller yesterday and nursing a nasty bruise on his elbow, said the city would assist in the investigation but had no responsibility to find out what went wrong. "I don't think we have the authority to investigate an event that took place in a federal building," he said.
The Constitution Center and the National Park Service have formed an accident review team to conduct the investigation, according to Laura Linton, executive vice president of the center. That investigation should take one to two weeks, she said last night.
David Perri, deputy commissioner of the city Department of Licenses and Inspections (L&I), said the wood-and-metal structure, resembling a picture frame around the stage, should have been secured by guy wires at the top or bolts at the base.
But it had neither, according to two sources close to the investigation, including an official who asked not to be named. This official said another frame, just behind the one that fell, had sandbags around the bottom to hold it in place, but the front one had nothing at all.
Officials at the Park Service, the federal agency involved in the investigation, did not return phone calls yesterday.
There was no immediate indication that the accident involved any foul play. At the same time, questions persisted about what one person close to the investigation called "a gray area": who, if anyone, should have inspected or tested the temporary stage structure before the ceremony.
"It's not our responsibility," Street spokeswoman Barbara Grant said. "It happened on federal property, so it's like it happened in a foreign country."
The Constitution Center had just one building permit - a land-use permit from the Park Service. Perri of L&I said the city has no responsibility for federal buildings. And even if it did, he said, L&I does not inspect stage sets because they are not permanent construction. "The law does not require that to be inspected at all."
He said the structure was high and narrow, and should have been either securely bolted to the floor or supported by wires from the ceiling to prevent it from toppling. "It does not appear it was [secured], based on the news clip I saw," Perri said. "There should have been guy wires to hold the top."
The frame, about 15 feet high, crashed onto Street and other honorees as they tugged red, white and blue streamers that were supposed to unveil a dramatic screen at the new museum's front entrance.
Forty-two people were on the stage when the frame collapsed.
"Yes, this is embarrassing," Street said. "I think we were very, very fortunate there were no significant injuries. And all of the people who were bumped in this thing were more or less public officials."
O'Connor and two other justices, Antonin Scalia and Stephen Breyer, were accompanied to the event by U.S. Supreme Court police officers and by U.S. marshals, said court spokeswoman Kathleen L. Arberg. O'Connor was traveling and unavailable for comment yesterday, Arberg said.
The set was designed by a staging company called Q We Get It!, built by members of Local 8 of the Stagehands' Union, and commissioned by the Creative Group, a firm that handles special events and was hired by the center.
Senior officials from Q, which has offices in Eddystone, Delaware County, and the Creative Group, which is based in Conshohocken, could not be reached for comment yesterday. The two firms are handling the staging for the entire week's worth of events at the Convention Center.
A competitor in the staging business criticized the Fourth of July event.
"Looking at the footage this morning, it looks like the design was flawed," Chuck Ogle, of Tri-State Staging, a South Jersey events firm, said yesterday. "People, especially dignitaries, should never have been allowed to pull on a piece of scenery. . . . You're supposed to make it look like a mayor or someone is pulling on a string and make it look like he's making something happen. But a stagehand is actually doing the work."
Equally critical was Robert Mongeluzzi, president of the Philadelphia Trial Lawyers Association and a lawyer who specializes in suing over structural collapses.
Mongeluzzi represents construction workers injured at the Kimmel Center in a 2000 accident, the family of a woman killed when Pier 34 sank into the Delaware River that year, and an Army cadet injured when a railing gave way at the Army-Navy game here in 1998.
"It's got to be planned, designed, engineered and built correctly. It doesn't look like they did any of those in yesterday's collapse," the lawyer said. "What's the plan here? That could have killed our governor, our mayor, a Supreme Court justice. . . . Why Philadelphia? Why do we have more of these catastrophes than any other city? What's the thread that ties them together? The thread is clearly lack of inspection and government oversight."
Local 8, a 300-member unit of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), was responsible for erecting the set. IATSE members are veteran stagehands who have set up shows at the Mann Center for the Performing Arts, the Kimmel Center, and the Academy of Music.
Michael Barnes, business manager for Local 8, could not be reached for comment yesterday. He said Friday that the union would investigate.
Street said he had learned no details yet about what went wrong. He didn't think there had been any undue rush to complete work at the center. "I had the sense they knew exactly what they wanted to do, exactly where they wanted to be," he said. "I think they had plenty of time to set up that stage."
Street, saying he was "eternally optimistic," tried to find a silver lining in the snafu: "We actually got a lot more coverage for that thing falling."
Inquirer staff writer John Shiffman contributed to this article. It also contains information from the Associated Press.
It must have been Bush's fault.
One didn't secure it right and the other didn't secure Rights.
You know, that's not bad!
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