House panel backs measure requiring stage inspections

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Updated: March 23, 2012 8:16AM

INDIANAPOLIS — All large, temporary outdoor stages like the one in last summer’s deadly Indiana State Fair collapse would face new inspection standards set by the state’s building safety commission under a bill endorsed Tuesday by an Indiana House committee.

The proposal approved 12-0 by the House public safety committee calls for the building safety commission to establish temporary inspection rules this spring. The bill requires the state to later adopt permanent rules after a special panel reviews reports expected in April from two out-of-state companies hired by the state to review the collapse.

Strong winds blew over stage rigging onto fans awaiting an Aug. 13 concert by the country duo Sugarland, killing seven people and injuring more than 40 others.

Bill sponsor Rep. Robert Cherry, R-Greenfield, was at the concert with his wife and had just left the grandstand seating area when the collapse happened. He said the proposal will fix a hole in regulations that prevented Indianapolis city inspectors from checking out the stage rigging since it was on state-owned property — and set rules for similar stages statewide.

“We have to do something to put in the minds of people that we’re not going to have another tragedy someplace else,” Cherry said.

The proposal would give the building safety commission the authority to exempt small outdoor stages from inspection requirements.

Gale Gerber of Nappanee, vice president of Indiana State Festivals Association, said the group supports having the safety inspections but worries about added costs for the hundreds of small festivals its members organize each year.

“If we’re going to have to hire engineering firms to give wind shear loads and weight capacities of stages, that could run into major dollars,” he told the committee.

The bill now goes to the full House for consideration. The Senate voted 45-5 last month to approve a similar version of the bill.