Skip to footer

Nine circus performers injured in acrobatics accident

Nine circus performers were seriously injured when a platform collapsed mid-stunt during a live Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus' Legends show at the Dunkin' Donuts Center in Providence. 

|
Tara Griggs/AP Photo
In a cell phone photo provided by Tara Griggs, emergency workers tend to injured performers after a platform collapsed, Sunday, during the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus' Legends show at the Dunkin' Donuts Center in Providence, R.I. At least nine people were injured in the fall, including a dancer below.
  • By Michelle R. Smith Associated Press

| Providence, R.I.

A platform collapsed during an aerial hair-hanging stunt at a circus performance Sunday, sending eight entertainers plummeting to the ground. Nine were seriously injured in the fall, including a dancer below.

The accident was reported at about 11:45 a.m. during the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus' Legends show at the Dunkin' Donuts Center in Providence.

Stephen Payne, a spokesman for Feld Entertainment, the parent company of Ringling Bros., said eight of the injured acrobats fell up to 40 feet (12 meters).

Providence Public Safety Commissioner Steven Pare said officials and inspectors haven't yet determined what caused the accident. He said none of the injuries appears to be life-threatening.

Roman Garcia, general manager of the show, said the accident occurred during the "hair hang" act in which the performers hang from their hair.

Sydney Bragg, 14, of North Kingstown, said the collapse happened about 90 minutes into the show. She said the platform began to fall as it neared the rafters of the arena. At first, she said, she thought it was part of the act.

"It just went crashing down," Sydney said. "Everyone was freaking out. We heard this huge clatter and then we just heard the girls scream."

She said spotlights were on the performers at the time, but all the lights went out after the fall.

Rosa Viveiros of Massachusetts said the act was covered by a curtain. Shortly after the curtain was pulled away, she said, the performers fell on top of at least one other performer below, a man who stood up with his face bloodied.

The Dunkin' Donuts Center said two shows scheduled for later Sunday and two others Monday are on hold.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Nine circus performers injured in acrobatics accident
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Latest-News-Wires/2014/0504/Nine-circus-performers-injured-in-acrobatics-accident
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe