Loudspeakers JBL settles for their role in The Station fire
- Thread starterMNicolai
- Start date
What Rigger?
I'm so fly....I Neverland.
Footer.... don't give the lawyers ideas...
I agree with the aforementioned thoughts. I think it is ridiculous for them to have even been named in the suit, since the tragedy was all about inappropriate use of equipment in the first place. That would be like suing Folgers Coffee because a drunk driver drank their coffee to try and "sober up". However, I think form a corporate standpoint, it is much easier and cheaper for them to settle than to have to fight it in court and have to deal with bad press.
~Dave
~Dave
Yup, it is MUCH cheaper. Hiring a team of 6 lawyers for 3 months to do this suit could easily cost a million dollars. Also, the last thing they want is to have a trial say they had a hand in the trial.
Also, these company's had money that the lawyers for the family's knew they could get to and at least get a settlement. The JBL thing is one thing because those thing should be fire-resistant to an extent. The trucking company on the other hand is complete gibberish.
NickVon
Well-Known Member
Stupid.....I mean naming JBL because the foam for there drivers might be "flammable".... how about that any of the good JBL cabinets are made out of "WOOD"!!!!!!!!!!!. Like "the stage" they were on. (i'm sure the "flammable" foam on the scale of what was flammable in that building falls somewhere between the a "bottle of Beer" and "a piece of Gum"...... just saying 
BillESC
Well-Known Member
It just shows how wrong the liability system is in our country.
I was once sued for $ 125,000,000.00 because I sold a pair of Genie Lifts to a guy who years later set them up for lighting a concert. Just as the concert began, the weather went south causing the trusses to fall and cripple Curtis Mayfield.
The suit included me because of "my proximity to the case." All I did was sell a product and yet it cost me nearly fifty grand in legal fees and all I made on the sale was $ 300.00
I was once sued for $ 125,000,000.00 because I sold a pair of Genie Lifts to a guy who years later set them up for lighting a concert. Just as the concert began, the weather went south causing the trusses to fall and cripple Curtis Mayfield.
The suit included me because of "my proximity to the case." All I did was sell a product and yet it cost me nearly fifty grand in legal fees and all I made on the sale was $ 300.00
I find it amazing what kind of litigation people can get away with. The US Judicial System is one of the scariest things around, and I remain glad I yet to have an encounter with it. Anyone can accuse anyone else of anything else, and the accused has to front their own money for their defense, regardless of whether or not the case has any merit.
While I don't disagree that speakers shouldn't be built out of highly flammable materials, for someone to seek legal action for the acoustical foam within them and try to blame JBL for that fire is ridiculous. Has anyone ever tried to set a speaker on fire? I'd bet that because of the pyrotechnics and the acoustical materials around the stage, most of the people who died were already dead long before the foam inside the speakers ignited.
Reports stated in only a couple minutes, the entire club was filled with black smoke, and I think it would take more than two minutes for a speaker to burn through enough to leak out additional smoke from the interior foam. Even if the cones burnt up instantly, I can't imagine that they would have had enough speakers in there releasing enough smoke to create anywhere near the kind of problems they had from the foam used around the stage.
Meanwhile, the bus company may have been transporting fireworks illegally, and there was no way they couldn't have known about that, because the boxes were clearly labeled as containing explosive materials. I would go so far as to say they were breaking the law, but that they did not actually contribute to the fire. They should have only had to have paid the fines to the state and been done with it, but not to the families. They were responsible only for the transportation of materials, but not how they were used.
Bill, are you ever going to sell a lift again after that encounter?
While I don't disagree that speakers shouldn't be built out of highly flammable materials, for someone to seek legal action for the acoustical foam within them and try to blame JBL for that fire is ridiculous. Has anyone ever tried to set a speaker on fire? I'd bet that because of the pyrotechnics and the acoustical materials around the stage, most of the people who died were already dead long before the foam inside the speakers ignited.
Reports stated in only a couple minutes, the entire club was filled with black smoke, and I think it would take more than two minutes for a speaker to burn through enough to leak out additional smoke from the interior foam. Even if the cones burnt up instantly, I can't imagine that they would have had enough speakers in there releasing enough smoke to create anywhere near the kind of problems they had from the foam used around the stage.
Meanwhile, the bus company may have been transporting fireworks illegally, and there was no way they couldn't have known about that, because the boxes were clearly labeled as containing explosive materials. I would go so far as to say they were breaking the law, but that they did not actually contribute to the fire. They should have only had to have paid the fines to the state and been done with it, but not to the families. They were responsible only for the transportation of materials, but not how they were used.
Bill, are you ever going to sell a lift again after that encounter?
BillESC
Well-Known Member
I'm still a Genie dealer. I do however carry a lot more insurance.
bishopthomas
Well-Known Member
That's nuts! Sorry you had to go through that. How does the truss just "fall off" anyway? Did he not lash it to the forks? I can't imagine what kind of weather would knock over a Genie that wouldn't cause people to be LONG GONE from the area. I hope the owner of these Genies was strung up by his tongue.
Things happen, and people will stay in unkind weather for quite a while if they've shown up to see a band they think is awesome.
What perfect timing to ask such a question, here's a more recent thread about a stage collapse in inclement weather.
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