Personal Injury Law

After Akon Concert, Fan Files Personal Injury Lawsuit

By Michael

Akon is a fixture on the pop music charts: More than 300 times has he made a guest appearance on a song that hit the Billboard Hot 100 charts.

His massive popularity makes him a hot commodity in concert, but his fans’ enthusiasm is leading to lawsuits against venue owners and tour promoters.

A recently filed personal injury lawsuits claims she was injured at an Akon concert last summer after the singer lept into the crowd, inciting a dangerous level of pandemonium among the crowd.

Holly Duncan claimed in a personal injury lawsuit that she was hurt during the Chicago-area B96 Summer Bash concert in June 2009, when a female attendee at the show fell backwards on top of her and her sister, reports the Chicago Tribune.

According to the suit, the 28,000 people in attendance at the concert went into an uproar after Akon dove into the crowd, causing the concertgoer to fall on Duncan.

The lawsuit points at the venue operators, the actual village the concert took place in and security crews as defendants, but Akon himself was not listed in the suit.

Local CBS affiliate WBBM, the village of Bridgeview, Monterrey Security Consultants, Andell Sports and Entertainment and Toyota Park were all named.

The suit claims that during Akon?s performance, people crowded the aisles within Toyota Park rather than remaining in their assigned seats and concert staff and security did not do anything to stop that activity.

Duncan?s suit further claimed that Akon leapt into the crowd four times during a song within about a four minute period, which caused large shifting among the swells of people near where she and her sister were attempting to watch the show.

The suit doesn?t specify what the extent of her injuries were, only reading that Duncan ?sustained personal injury, has and will in the future sustain pain and suffering, disability and disfigurement.? There are also claims in the suit that Duncan will need continuous medical treatment for her injuries and that she will have to ?pay sums of money for hospital care and attention.?

Duncan asked for $50,000 apiece from each of the defendants named in the lawsuit.

The suit accuses WBBM of being negligent, both by not setting up proper safety measures at the show for crowd control and not responding to the crowd once people started acting in an unsafe manner. Monterrey Security, Bridgeview and Andell face similar charges within the lawsuit.

Toyota Park is charged with not providing a safe location to see the concert.

The suit does say that Akon caused a ?crowd surge that was dangerous for persons lawfully attending the concert? when he dove off the stage, but he nonetheless was not named a defendant.

Full post as published by The Injury Blog on April 12, 2010 (boomark / email).