2 reports on Ind. stage collapse set for release

INDIANAPOLIS — The results of two investigations into last summer’s deadly stage collapse at the Indiana State Fair are set for release.

State Fair Commission members are scheduled to receive the investigative reports Thursday during their meeting at the fairgrounds.

State officials hired international engineering firm Thornton Tomasetti to investigate what caused stage rigging used to hold lights and sound equipment to collapse Aug. 13 as high winds ahead of a storm swept the fairgrounds before a scheduled concert by country duo Sugarland.

Emergency preparation experts from Washington-based Witt Associates were hired to investigate the fair’s emergency plans and response to the collapse that killed seven people.

The reports are being released the same day Sugarland members Jennifer Nettles and Kristian Bush begin giving depositions in West Virginia about the collapse.