The Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus $7,000 for an improperly installed rig that was used in a hair-hanging act gone terribly awry in May.
Eight acrobats were sent tumbling to the ground at a performance in Providence, Rhode Island, at the Dunkin’s Donuts Center. OSHA ruled that the equipment was faulty — that those who installed it put too much weight on a carabiner, which caused the metal loop the acrobats used during their stunts to fail, the Boston Globe reported.
Eight performers were injured when they fell 20 feet to the ground. Another person on the ground was also hurt, officials said.
“Equipment failures can lead to tragic results,” said Jeffrey Erskine, the acting deputy regional administrator of OSHA’s New England office, in a statement reported by the Boston Globe. “To prevent these types of incidents, employers need to not only ensure that the right equipment is being used, but also that it is being used properly.”
The eight performers had been doing a stunt in which they hang by their hair from an umbrella-shaped “human chandelier” contraception.
OSHA said circus staffers didn’t abide by industry standards or manufacturer’s instructions for the carabiner. The federal agency fined Feld Entertainment, which operates under the Ringling name. Feld now has 15 days to appeal the ruling.
“This catastrophic failure by Ringling … clearly demonstrates that the circus industry needs a systematic design approach for the structures used in performances — approaches that are developed, evaluated and inspected by professional engineers,” said David Michaels, assistant secretary of labor for the federal agency, the Boston Globe reported.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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