At least 16 people were hospitalized after a wooden footbridge collapsed at the conclusion of a fireworks celebration at Hidden Lake Park in Merrillville, about 45 minutes south of Chicago.
Media reports were unclear about whether it was a public park. But injured participants could have a premise liability claim against the park owner or the company that provided the fireworks display.
Witnesses described a chaotic scene, estimating that the roughly 90-foot-long bridge was full of people before it fell, according to the Associated Press as reported by Fox News.
While authorities have released few other details, it is possible that event organizers allowed far too many people onto the 90-foot wooden brindge, which collapsed about 10 p.m., just as the grand finale concluded, sending people plummeting into the water below.
A dive team was called in to pull people and items from the water and the investigation continued through the weekend. There were estimates that thousands had attended the annual fireworks display at the park in years past.
"They had to rescue quite a few people," Ross Township firefighter Perry Herzog said in a newspaper account.
Herzog said 16 people were transported to local hospitals for treatment. He said others might have been taken to hospitals by family members.
He did not know the nature of their injuries, and said there were no fatalities in the accident. About 50 emergency vehicles responded to the scene, along with helicopter and dive teams.
Robert Walker, of Merrillville, blamed the collapse on the number of people crossing the bridge.
"It was a mass of confusion," he said. "People were walking across the bridge when it collapsed. People were grasping and hanging onto the bridge itself."
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