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Investigator: Failed clamp caused circus accident
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."
Oh no! Comic book character 'Archie' dies in end of series
 |
| The cover of ''Life with Archie #36'' is shown in this undated handout image from Archie Comics released April 9, 2014. |
Reuters) - Archie Andrews, the fictional red-headed, American teenager in the popular "Archie" comics, will die in the conclusion of a flash-forward series this summer, according to its publisher.
In the series of his adventures after high school and college, the iconic comic character will die while saving the life of a friend in "Life With Archie #36" in July.
"We've been building up to this moment since we launched "Life with Archie" five years ago, and knew that any book that was telling the story of Archie's life as an adult had to also show his final moment," Archie Comics Publisher and co-Chief Executive Officer Jon Goldwater said on the website www.archiecomics.com.
He added that the story will be available in multiple formats, including magazine size, two comic-size issues #36 and #37, and a paperback of the entire story.
"Life with Archie #36" will detail his final moments, while "Life with Archie #37" will show how his friends are coping without him a year after his death.
A spokesman for the comics said the events in the flash-forward series will not affect Archie in the present-day series. His adventures and stories as a teenager will continue.
The Archie series, with characters such as Jughead, Betty and Veronica, have been running for decades. Archie Comics have sold 2 billion comics worldwide and are published around the globe.
(Reporting by Patricia Reaney; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)
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Rapper Tyler, The Creator arrested at South By Southwest
AUSTIN, Texas – Rapper Tyler, The Creator, was arrested Saturday for allegedly inciting a riot during a show at the South By Southwest music festival.
Travis County Sheriff's spokesman Roger Wade said the Odd Future rapper, whose name is Tyler Gregory Okonma, was arrested at Austin-Bergstrom Airport and was likely to be arraigned later Saturday. If convicted of inciting a riot, which is a misdemeanor, he faces up to a year in jail and a $4,000 fine.
His bond was set at $3,500.
The rapper's publicist declined to comment about the arrest.
Police say the 23-year-old Los Angeles resident incited a large crowd of fans at the annual music conference and festival to push their way past venue employees controlling access to a Thursday show that was already at full capacity.
Officers who were at the scene said in a warrant that Tyler yelled for fans to push their way inside twice, and that a bartender had to protect a woman from injury in the resulting push.
Police released a video from the concert that shows scores of fans bursting through a gate at the Scoot Inn in downtown Austin.
Tyler and members of the Odd Future collective were denied a visa to travel to New Zealand in February after officials there said they were a potential "public threat" because of past troubles, "including incidents at past performances in which they have incited violence." They pointed to a 2011 incident in which police were called to a comic book store in Boston where fans became unruly.
The group's manager, Christian Clancy, defended them last month after the New Zealand decision, saying they were young at the time and were being judged too harshly.
News Source: www.foxnews.com
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