The stagehand who died of injuries he received in a fall at the amphitheater in Snowden Grove Park last Thursday had had numerous rigging jobs without incident.
Chuck Cole, the owner of Cole Entertainment Services, the firm that had contracted to rig the amphitheater for a concert at Southaven's Springfest, said Charles "Chuck" Houston had worked for a number of years as a stagehand.
"He was very experienced," he said. "He had begun working (as a stagehand) in 1997 and had worked on a regular basis since 2002."
Cole and Houston were personal friends and played football together at Southaven High School.
Although DeSoto County Coroner Jeffery Pounders said that Houston was not wearing a safety harness and that he was working without a safety net, Cole said Houston had on a safety harness, "but it was not hooked up at the time."
He explained that high riggers -- the workers who work the superstructure high above the stage -- "have to unhook and then re-hook as they move from point to point about the building."
He said that Houston either had unhooked to make a move "or he may have been on a beam that had no safety line where he could hook up."
Houston inexplicably lost his balance and fell about 40 feet, slamming his head onto the concrete stage.
At the time, Houston was working as an up-rigger and Cole was his down-rigger. Down-riggers pass materials to the up-riggers as they are needed.
"I didn't see him as he lost his balance, but I saw him as he fell," Cole said. "I started CPR (cardio-pulmonary resuscitation) on him. He was a close friend."
Houston had been working alone on one part of the superstructure, but other riggers were also working on the job, Cole said. None of the other riggers were near Houston when he fell.
Allen Byassee, business agent and corresponding secretary for Local 69 of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees union in Memphis, said Houston's death was "a needless, senseless death."
He said IATSE-covered workers are required to wear safety harnesses or to use nets to prevent falls and serious injuries.
"If he'd had that safety harness on at the time, we wouldn't be having this conversation is what I'm saying," he said.
Byassee said that some contractors cut corners by not having adequate insurance coverage such as IATSE provides.
Cole said his employees are "fully covered" by insurance in Tennessee, Arkansas and Mississippi.
Southaven Police Chief Tom Long said his officers have looked at the accident. "As far as we can tell, everything points to just a really bad accident."
He said investigators from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration are also looking into the accident.
"OSHA is going to do their thing, but that's separate from us," he said.
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