Monday, 5 May 2014
The weekend accident that injured nine members of a circus troupe,
along with two other people, during a Ringling Bros. performance in Rhode
Island was caused by a malfunctioning clamp, authorities said Monday.
Providence Public Safety
Commissioner Steven Pare didn't provide any additional details of what happened
to cause the clamp to fail Sunday morning, sending eight performers plummeting
some 25 feet to 35 feet to the ground.
A performer on the ground and two
other people were also injured, officials said. Many suffered broken bones,
officials said. Two of those hospitalized remained in critical condition Monday, CNN affiliate WPRI reported.
A circus spokesman called the
accident "unprecedented."
"We have never had an
accident like this with this number of performers injured," said Ringling
Bros. spokesman Steven Payne. "It really is a testament to, you know,
their physical fitness and skills, that the injuries were not more severe than
they were."
The injuries came after the
failure of a rig holding eight members of the Medeiros Hair-Hang Act aloft by
their hair. The rig collapsed as the audience looked on. Many suffered broken
bones, Pare said Sunday. No spectators were hurt.
"I screamed. I'm like,
that's not right," Chelie Barrie, a spectator, told WPRI. "You know,
sometimes you're surprised and it's part of the show, but this clearly
wasn't."
Rhode Island Hospital has
confirmed that each of the eight women named by Ringling Bros. as part of the
act are in the hospital: Viktoriya Medeiros, Widny Neves, Samantha Pitard,
Viktorila Liakhova, Dayana Costa, Julissa Segrera, Stefany Neves and Svitlana
Balanicheva.
The Medeiros Hair-Hang Act is
touted on the Ringling Bros. website as a "one-of-a-kind act ... the
brainchild of husband-and-wife team Andre and Viktoria Medeiros, (who) have
devised and improved the mechanisms and methods making possible the myriad of
maneuvers this troupe will perform for audiences."
"It is Andre's attention to
every detail, even welding the three different rigs that the girls hang from,
that keeps his troupe safe and sound each and every time the act is
presented," according to the website.
The circus canceled both of its
scheduled performances Monday amid the investigation, which Pare said is now
being led by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
Payne said the circus is
cooperating fully with investigators trying to understand what happened.
Elaine Alcorn, a circus performer
who was not involved in the show, said "nothing is ever 100% sure" in
a dangerous pursuit such as the circus.
"There can always be
mistakes, there can always be failures in the rigging," she said.
It's something performers accept,
she said.
"They don't call it death
defying for nothing," she said. "As a circus performer it is our job
to do the impossible, to stare death in the face and conquer it. We don't just
do it for entertainment. We do it to inspire people, to inspire them to conquer
their own fears or overcome their own obstacles."
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