One week before Coachella 2019 begins, a worker constructing a stage at the Indio, California festival site fell to their death.
Coachella organizers Goldenvoice said in a statement Saturday, “Today, Goldenvoice lost a colleague, a friend, a family member. Our friend fell while working on a festival stage. It is with heavy hearts and tremendous difficulty that we confirm his passing. He has been with our team for twenty years in the desert and was doing what he loved. He was a hard-working and loving person that cared deeply about his team. As our lead rigger, he was responsible for the countless incredible shows that have been put on at the festival. We will miss him dearly.”
The Indio Police Department confirmed the accident to the Desert Sun, adding that the still-unnamed worker in the staging area of the festival grounds fell and died at the scene. Indio police are investigating the incident.
The Riverside County Fire Department tweeted soon after the accident that someone suffered a “traumatic injury” after they “fell from a roof and perished at the scene.”
TMZ reported that eyewitnesses saw the worker, a man who was climbing the stage scaffolding, fall approximately 60 feet, and that a safety harness was not attached at the time of the accident; it’s unclear whether the worker was wearing a safety harness when the incident occurred.
[Daniel Kreps/Rolling Stone – original article]
[Picture – Rolling Stone/Zach Cordner/Invision/AP/REX/Shutterstock]
