Aug. 8 is a day that will forever go down in infamy, as it marks the anniversary of when a tour bus for the Dave Matthews Band dumped an estimated 800 pounds of human waste onto passengers aboard an architectural sightseeing boat on the Chicago River.
At the time, the band was booked for a two-night show at a venue in East Troy, Wisconsin, when tour bus driver Stefan Wohl released the bus’s septic tank over the Kinzie Street Bridge while crossing the river — which in turn passed through the bridge’s non-slip riveted grating. Of the 120 passengers, about two-thirds were soaked — including those with disabilities, the elderly, a pregnant woman, a small child, and an infant — in what sounds like an extremely unpleasant experience, according to legal filings obtained by The Smoking Gun.
“The liquid waste was brownish yellow in color, and had a foul, offensive odor. The liquid human waste went into passengers’ eyes, mouths, hair, and onto clothing and personal belongings, many of which were soaked. Some of the passengers suffered nausea and vomiting as a result of exposure to the human waste.”
The following March, Wohl was sentenced to 18 months of probation after pleading guilty to reckless conduct. He was also order to serve 150 hours of community service and paid a $10,000 fine to Friends of the Chicago River.
It’s almost unfair that the band has been forever tied to the incident, as none of the band members were actually on the bus at the time. It wasn’t even the bus that Dave Matthews himself was transported on — but violinist Boyd Tinsley!
Yet, 18 years later, the internet still finds the incident pretty freaking hilarious, if the dozens, if not hundreds of tweets marking the occasion are any indication.
The Recount editor-in-chief Slade Sohmer pointed out that children born of the day of the incident can officially vote and serve in the military!
The Onion likewise got in on the action by suggesting that the incident happened again.
It’s also worth pointing out that no one involved experienced any long-lasting health issues from the exposure, so we guess it’s OK to laugh? The people on the boat that day might feel differently, but that’s just the sort of cognitive dissonance that comes with having 800 pounds of human feces dumped on your head.
