Eight acrobats are paid $52.5million after suffering life-altering injuries when rigging suspending them by their hair plummeted to the floor during circus act in Rhode Island
Eight acrobats severely injured when the rigging suspending them by their hair plummeted to the floor during a circus performance in Rhode Island in 2014 have reached a $52.5 million settlement with the ownership and management of the arena where the circus was held, their lawyer confirmed Monday.
'It's a great result, it's the right result and it's a just result,' Zachary Mandell, an attorney for the eight women, said of the settlement, first reported by The Providence Journal.
A metal clip that held the acrobats 20 feet above the floor of the Dunkin' Donuts Center snapped during the May 2014 performance, causing the women to suffer broken bones and spinal injuries. A ninth worker on the ground was also hurt.
The performers of the Human Chandelier routine who were involved in the 2014 accident
Cellphone footage captured by a member of the audience shows a curtain fall to reveal a platform from which the performers were suspended, then suddenly the platform crashes to the ground while a loud gasp of horror can be heard from the audience.
The accident was witnessed by an audience of about 3,900, many of them children.
Some of the women still suffer from 'life-altering' injuries, according to Mandell, who said he could not get into specifics because of medical privacy laws.
'These clients will now be able to have meaningful recoveries with the assistance of this settlement,' he said.
The women in 2016 sued the Rhode Island Convention Center Authority, which owns the arena, and SMG, which manages it. Sean Brousseau, listed as an attorney for both entities, said Monday he could neither confirm nor deny a settlement.
The settlement will be paid by insurers, Mandell said
The hair-hanging stunt was described on the circus' website as a 'larger-than-life act' featuring eight female performers. 'In this hair-raising act, audiences will even see the weight of three girls held aloft by the locks of only one of these tangled beauties.'
Smart phone footage captured by a member of the audience shows a curtain fall to reveal a platform from which a number of performers were suspended by their hair
Suddenly the platform crashes to the ground and a loud gasp of horror can be heard from the audience, left. The lights went out leaving the performers writhing in pain, right
Cellphone footage captured by a member of the audience shows a curtain fall to reveal a platform from which the performers were suspended, then suddenly the platform crashes to the ground while a loud gasp of horror can be heard from the audience.
The accident was witnessed by an audience of about 3,900, many of them children.
Some of the women still suffer from 'life-altering' injuries, according to Mandell, who said he could not get into specifics because of medical privacy laws.
'These clients will now be able to have meaningful recoveries with the assistance of this settlement,' he said.
The women in 2016 sued the Rhode Island Convention Center Authority, which owns the arena, and SMG, which manages it. Sean Brousseau, listed as an attorney for both entities, said Monday he could neither confirm nor deny a settlement.
Eleven people were admitted to hospital after the platform collapsed during an aerial hair-hanging stunt, sending eight acrobats plummeting to the ground
Emergency personnel attend to Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus performers who were injured when the scaffolding they were performing from collapsed in Providence, Rhode Island in 2013
Eight acrobats were injured in a fall that sent them hurtling to the floor of the arena
An injured female performer is lifted onto a stretcher after a platform collapsed
The settlement will be paid by insurers, Mandell said
According to the lawsuit, SMG agreed to manage all events and maintain safety inside the center, and arranged with Florida-based Feld Entertainment Inc., the parent company of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, to bring the circus to Providence.
After the accident, which occurred in front of thousands of spectators, the U.S. Department of Labor´s Occupational Safety and Health Administration concluded circus staff had overloaded a carabiner clip. The clip held up a chandelier-like apparatus from which the women were suspended by their hair.
OSHA cited Feld for a 'serious' infraction of industry practice and imposed the maximum possible fine, $7,000.
Feld Entertainment disputed the finding.
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, which closed in 2017, also agreed to take several steps to improve safety.
During a tearful press conference in 2014, Viktoriya Medeiros, 34, of Bulgaria, who designed the hair-hanging 'human chandelier' act with her husband, said the women know they are lucky to be alive.
Circus acrobats Julissa Segrera, second from left, of the United States, and Dayana Costa, right, of Brazil, are tearful as Costa reads a statement to members of the media at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, in June 2014
Circus acrobat Viktoriya Medeiros, left, of Bulgaria, speaks to reporters as attorney Thomas Prindable, second from left, and fellow performer Svitlana Balanicheva, center, of Ukraine, listen during a news conference in the month following the accident
Injured circus acrobat Julissa Segrera, of the U.S., right, wipes away a tear while speaking with reporters as attorney Michael Krzak, left, wipes his eye during a news conference about the accident in 2014
Circus acrobats Julissa Segrera, of the U.S., left, and Dayana Costa, of Brazil, right, hold hands as a fixator medical stabilization device is attached to Costa's hand and arm during the 2014 news conference
'We are all terribly injured. Some of us require many surgeries,' she said, wearing a neck brace and seated in a wheelchair.
'We are learning to use our arms, hands and necks again (in) hours and hours of daily physical therapy. We are hoping we can (heal) enough that we can live our lives without this pain.'
Dayana Costa, a 26-year-old from Brazil, said her family put their lives on hold to be with her during the long recovery. She wore a neck brace, had pins in her arms and was in a motorized chair.
'I don't know what I'd do without them,' Costa said through tears.
Widny Neves, 25, suffered a badly broken arm in the incident and her father says it is a miracle that no-one died
Viktorila Liakhova, left, and Viktoriya Medeiros, right, were also both seriously injured
Svitlana Balanchieva, 22, and fellow acrobat Viktoria Medeiros said they missed performing.
'We always liked it to entertain families and mostly small kids,' said Balanchieva, who wore a neck brace and support around her torso.
'We took great joy in making others happy,' Medeiros said. 'That will no longer come to be,' said Medeiros, seated in a wheelchair with her arm bandaged.
'Always it will make us sad to know that we will never go back to do what we want to do, what we love to do.'
The hair-hanging stunt was described on the circus' website as a 'larger-than-life act' featuring eight female performers.
'These 'hairialists' perform a combination of choreography and cut-ups including spinning, hanging from hoops, and rolling down wrapped silks, all while being suspended 20 feet in the air by their hair alone,' the website says.
'In this hair-raising act, audiences will even see the weight of three girls held aloft by the locks of only one of these tangled beauties.'
No comments