It’s ridiculous,’ says father of Scott Johnson, drum technician killed in 2012 collapse.
The design for a stage that collapsed before a Radiohead concert in Toronto was flawed from its inception — and several people knew about the problems for years, according to Dale Martin, head of the company contracted by Live Nation to erect the stage.
Martin, who owned now defunct Optex Staging, testified Tuesday at the coroner’s inquest into the death of 33-year-old Scott Johnson, the Radiohead drum technician who was killed when the stage roof came tumbling down on June 16, 2012.
The stage roof designs called for a three-inch-thick roof truss component that Optex simply did not have in its inventory, the inquest heard.
“It’s garbage,” Martin said of the design. “It never existed. This drawing was always wrong.”
“Everybody that has been involved with any of our staging for years have known about those drawings being inaccurate,” Martin said.
Martin also said he alerted the engineer, Domenic Cugliari, about the issue many times and asked him to remove the drawing from the plans.
Cugliari’s lawyer Scott Thompson said his client “absolutely disputes” the claim and said this is the first time he heard this particular allegation.
Martin also took ownership for his role in the tragedy.
“The system failed. Not just the truss. My people. Me. I’m responsible,” Martin said.
The coroner’s inquest is nearing the end of its evidentiary stage, with less than a week left. In all, it will have have heard from 25 witnesses over three weeks.
[Kate Nicholson/Sylvène Gilchrist/CBC News – original article]
[Pictures – CBC News/Nathan Denette/Canadian Press and Spin/Geoff Robbins/Getty Images]
