Providence, R.I. • Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus has contested a citation it received from federal regulators for an accident that sent eight hair-hanging acrobats plummeting to the ground during a live performance, severely injuring most of them.
Stephen Payne, a spokesman for circus parent company Feld Entertainment, said this week that although they are appealing the finding, they are not planning to reprise the act and are implementing other safety measures recommended by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
"We want to make sure that something like this never happens again," he said, adding that while one of the injured acrobats has returned to the circus, the others had not.
"At this time, we don't believe that there are any plans for any of the performers to return, nor are there plans to have a similar hair hang act in any of our shows," Payne said. "It was a very popular act. It's not every day you see people hanging from their hair. I wouldn't say never, but there are no plans to have that type of performance right now."
FILE - In this Nov. 28, 2014 file photo, a Target shopper uses her iPhone to compare prices at Wal-Mart while shopping after midnight in South Portland, Maine. Increasingly, buying products online is like trading stocks: you can buy a copper mug or a coat and then hours _ or even minutes later _ it can go up and down in price. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File)
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