In 2013, an antique tractor was entered into Bangor’s July 4 parade. Its owner and driver, 63-year-old Wallace Fenlason, was simply negotiating a turn in the parade route when he was run over from behind by an antique firetruck. Mr.Fenlason was killed.

In 2014, organizers of a Halloween haunted hayride at Pumpkin Land in Mechanic Falls used an antique Jeep to tow a hay wagon through the attraction. With 21 guests aboard the wagon, the Jeep went out of control. All 21 were thrown from the wagon, among them 17-year-old Cassidy Charette. She was killed instantly.

My firm and I represented both the Fenlason and Charette families. The common threads we uncovered in our investigations of these two senseless – and avoidable – tragedies are obvious. In each, the event organizers provided little to no oversight into the mechanical conditions of the vehicles that were entered into the attraction.

The antique firetruck had sat unused for months and was not mechanically inspected before it was entered in the parade. The same was true of the Jeep. After the fact, the Jeep’s brakes were inspected and found to be both deteriorated and unsuitable for towing such a heavy load. In each case, event coordinators had planned routes that included steep downhill segments, placing even greater stress on each vehicles’ limitations. And, in each, oversight and control of participants during the events themselves was inadequate.

When the circumstances of cases we take at play out in the public arena, we hope that discovering and revealing failures will result in increased public safety. We know the simple truth: Every mandated safety rule or device we take for granted – like using our seat belts or expecting airbags in our vehicles – came about because others in the past had suffered or died.

In my law practice, in analyzing product and event failures, we apply the principle of FMEA – Failure Modes and Effects Analysis. While we apply it retrospectively to determine what went wrong, FMEA is designed to prevent, not diagnose, failure. Under FMEA, in event planning, you first ask, “what is the event’s purpose and how do we implement it?” Then you ask, “if we implement it that way, what can fail?” You prioritize those failures that endanger public safety, identify the root causes of the potential failures, and you change your implementation to eliminate them.

FMEA, or other variants of it, is the least we can expect, to avoid repeating tragic history. As I write this, it is too early to know exactly what went wrong to cause the near tragedy at Kennebunk’s 2024 May Day parade (“Several injured when pinned between antique vehicle, float at Kennebunk May Day parade,” May 4). Details are scant. Averting a tragedy of such magnitude ought not lessen the opportunity to pay attention – and to learn.

My heart sank as I read the Press Herald article reporting that, once again, an antique vehicle had gone out of control during a public event attended by families, this time resulting in it striking a parade float with numerous children aboard. The Fenlason and Charette families we had the privilege of representing will never get their loved ones back, but at least they had hope that their respective losses would draw attention to safety deficiencies, lessons could be learned, and the future could be safer than the past. They deserve it and we deserve it.

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