Part of stage set falls at museum dedication, injuring several

By David B. Caruso ~ The Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA -- A 15-foot-high frame made of wood and steel collapsed during the July Fourth dedication of the National Constitution Center, slightly injuring the mayor and two other people and narrowly missing Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

The frame slowly toppled as the guests of honor pulled on red, white and blue streamers that were supposed to unveil a tableau depicting the signing of the Constitution.

Instead, the streamers pulled down the frame, which grazed Mayor John F. Street and U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter and knocked the center's president, Joseph Torsella, to his knees.

Torsella, Street and a female government worker were treated at a hospital and released.

The crowd of 4,000 gasped as the frame came down around O'Connor, who had counted down from three to start the ceremony.

"It's my understanding that everybody is doing fine," Street said Saturday on NBC's "Today" show. "Our ego was bruised a little bit more than probably the injuries that we got.

"We had a great celebration, it was perfect right up until about the last 10 seconds."

As medics rushed to the stage to treat the injured, the show continued. Small cannons fired streamers over the crowd and fireworks erupted from the building's roof. The $185 million museum opened to the public as planned following the ceremony on Independence Mall.

The new center holds exhibits including the first public printings of the Constitution and an inkwell Abraham Lincoln used in signing the Emancipation Proclamation.

Supreme Court justices Antonin Scalia and Stephen Breyer and music legend Ray Charles also attended the ceremony but were not near the frame when it fell.