Sugarland Plan to Be ‘Honest and Open’ in Indiana State Fair Deposition
Sugarland was scheduled to begin their video deposition today (April 12) concerning the August 13 Indiana State Fair tragedy and the lawsuits suggesting that they resisted delaying the start of their show. Since the collapse that killed seven and injured dozens more, fingers have been pointed at everyone from Sugarland to Mid-America Sound Corp, the company that owned the stage and the light rigging. But the band says no one cares more about getting this resolved than they do.
“There is no one who wants to get to the bottom of what happened more than we do, which is why we’re ready, willing, and able to give these depositions today and tomorrow,” they said in a statement. Granted permission to give their deposition via video April 12 and 13 in Charleston, W.V., the duo also emphasized this week that, despite the accusations that have come their way, they have no intention of delaying the case.
“In all the back-and-forth between the lawyers, the suggestion’s been made that we’ve somehow been trying to avoid having to answer questions about last summer’s terrible tragedy. This is simply not true," Jennifer Nettles and Kristian Bush said. In an interesting turn of events, the findings of an engineering review done by New York-based Thornton Tomasetti were revealed today, suggesting that the stage in question didn't meet code; that is, it couldn't withstand a 68 MPH gust of wind.
The study reveals that the rigging was already damaged by the time the wind had picked up to 33 MPH, and then as the wind picked up, the entire thing simply collapsed. Perhaps this evidence will bode well for Sugarland, who have been accused of not wanting to delay the start of the show despite having knowledge of the inclement weather.
Though the judge hearing today's depositions has reportedly limited the topics that can be discussed, Sugarland said in their statement that they plan to be “as honest and open as we can” in order to get hard facts for those who were victims of the tragedy or victim's family members, insisting that their ultimate goal is to release details so "nothing like this ever happens again."