West Virginia residents may have heard about a fatal accident that took place last summer at a festival in a Chicago suburb. On Aug. 2, 2015, a tent collapsed during a storm at Prairie Fest in Wood Dale, killing one person and injuring several others.

Following the tent collapse, the victims and their family members filed lawsuits against the event organizers. According to the victims’ claims, the organizers failed to evacuate the festival even though they knew that a powerful storm was headed towards the festival grounds. Festival attendees were also not directed to a nearby school that had agreed to provide shelter. The plaintiffs say that the event organizers were negligent in their decision to gather a group of people beneath an improperly secured tent.

The person who was killed during the tent collapse was a 35-year-old man from Wood Dale. One of the other victims was an 81-year-old woman who suffered serious injuries during the tent collapse. The elderly woman’s family says that she died on Jan. 4 as a result of the injuries that she sustained during the festival accident. City officials organized the festival, but they were not named as defendants in the claims. Classic Party Rentals, the company that supplied the tents, tables and other equipment, has denied liability for the accident.

When an injury accident occurs on a property due to a dangerous or hazardous condition, the victims may have grounds for the filing of a premises liability lawsuit. A personal injury attorney may help to identify all of the parties that are responsible for an accident.

Source: Insurance Journal, “No Evacuation Ordered in Fatal Festival Tent Collapse in Chicago Suburb,” Jan. 20, 2016