Crowd Safety Expert Speaks on State Fair Tragedy
By Alex Brown - alex@wibc.com | @WIBC_AlexBrown
8/18/2011
A crowd safety expert is speaking out on the tragedy at the State Fair.
Paul Wertheimer, founder of Crowd Management Strategies, has investigated concert disasters involving death since 1979 and tells 93 WIBC's Ed Wenck on Indy's Afternoon News the kind of disaster at the State Fair is sometimes the result of the "rain or shine" mentality.
"They don't want to stop the show. Sometimes artists don't want to stop the show. There's money at stake especially if the artist doesn't perform and has to be paid anyway and they just try to make do," Wertheimer says.
Wertheimer says the State Fair disaster is both a public safety issue and a structural issue. He says investigators need to look into both the State Fair's emergency plans and how well the stage was prepared for severe weather.
Wertheimer says he disagrees with legislators' "wait and see" stance regarding creating laws to prevent similar disasters in the future. He says enough information is out there to show that something needs to be done now.
