Before Roberto Valenzuela launched into his daredevil acrobatic act in the upper reaches of the Circo Hermanos Vazquez big top, ringmaster Jesus Vazquez issued his standard dramatic warning to the circus audience: "A screw that loosens or a cord that breaks could be fatal."
But as the popular Mexican circus performer took his act before hundreds of adults and children in South El Monte on Monday night, the warning took on tragic meaning.
Valenzuela was performing a series of maneuvers while dangling from two 26-foot-long red cloths when equipment connecting cables to the material broke, sending the performer hurtling headfirst to the ground.
He was killed instantly.
The circus was founded in Mexico City in 1969 and employs about 30 animal trainers, clowns and acrobats.
The company followed Latino population growth in the United States beginning in the mid-1990s, starting a troupe based in Brownsville, Texas, and playing dates in that state and California.
Officials from the state workplace safety agency Cal/OSHA and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department launched separate investigations into the accident. State investigators recovered bolts and other materials that apparently fell from Valenzuela's rigging.
Agency spokesman Dean Fryer said a preliminary inquiry has found that the circus may have violated state laws by allowing Valenzuela to perform stunts without equipment to protect him from a fall.
Circus officials confirmed Tuesday that Valenzuela had no safety netting or harness during his performance and it appeared that shackles connecting cables to his cloth strips failed.
State investigators said they were told by circus officials that Valenzuela, 35, was an independent contractor, which appeared to preclude the state from taking regulatory action against the circus.
"Our responsibility is to safeguard employees on job sites," Fryer said. "Under the law, we only have jurisdiction where there is an employment relationship as opposed to a contractual one."
Cal/OSHA could take action, he added, if it determined that circus officials dictated aspects of Valenzuela's performance.
Circus officials said the accident was the first in their 10 years of operating in the United States. State records show the company had no previous record of any workplace incident or violations. It was also a rare circus performer death in California.
