Thursday marks the 20th anniversary of an unfortunate incident that happened only in Chicago when the driver of the Dave Matthews Band’s tour bus dumped hundreds of pounds of human waste on a passing boat.
There’s a sticker on the Kinzie Street Bridge that’s a reminder of the messy mistake made on Aug. 8, 2004. Dozens of people aboard Chicago’s Little Lady were crossing under the bridge when the driver of a Dave Matthews Band tour bus dumped 800 pounds of human waste.
The incident never should have happened, but the timing was especially terrible.
“I didn’t even have time to think, or react, my gag reflex just kicked in and I started throwing up,” said Lynn LaPlante.
LaPlante was not on the cruise but driving with her husband a few blocks behind the bus. Making matters worse, LaPlante was pregnant and extremely nauseous.
“All of the sudden it was like driving into a brick wall of smell. I don’t know how else to put it,” she said. “We didn’t see anything visually but when we got out of the car it was all along the side of our car and in the wheel wells, just like raw sewage, just covered.”
The band’s bus driver eventually admitted to the dumping and was prosecuted. Though the musicians weren’t on the bus, they did try to right the wrong by giving $50,000 to the Chicago Park District and $50,000 to Friends of the Chicago River.
“It contributed to us being able to do the work to do to help people think about the river differently,” Friends of the Chicago River Executive Director Margaret Frisbie said. “There is nothing good that came out of that event because what happened to those people on the boat and is still scarring all these years later.”
Several aboard Chicago’s First Lady cruises filed lawsuits because of the horror they experienced. The company isn’t commenting publicly out of respect for those people but did offer this statement:
“Our companies have provided acclaimed experiences on Chicago’s waterways for more than 87 years, and we choose to not let what took place that day diminish our contributions in showcasing the city we love with the world.”
As for Lynn, it’s a memory she laughs about. Even now, twenty years later.
“We’re very divided right now. There’s not a lot we can agree on, it seems I think everyone can agree this is just a weird, funny, hilarious only in Chicago story.”