A Brief History
On August 8, 2004, Chicago’s Little Lady, a tour boat carrying 120 passengers, was bombed by a tour bus belonging to the Dave Matthews Band. About 2/3 of the passengers were soaked with human waste dumped from the bus as it crossed the Kinzie Street bridge over the Chicago River in Chicago, Illinois.
Digging Deeper
Only the driver was aboard the bus and he decided to dump the waste from the toilets into the Chicago River as he crossed the bridge, the bridge made of open metal grates, and the driver claims he had no idea the boat was beneath the bus when the waste was let go.
With passengers soaked in human waste, the boat went right back to the dock. Despite denials, an investigation identified the driver who was convicted of “reckless conduct and discharging contaminants to cause water pollution.” The band issued an apology and paid over $300,000 to the state and local authorities. No injuries or illnesses were reported.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Milnaric, Jessica. Secret Chicago: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure. Reedy Press, 2018.
Van Noy, Nikki. So Much to Say: Dave Matthews Band–20 Years on the Road. Touchstone; Original, 2011.
The featured image in this article, a photograph by Asher Heimermann of Chicago’s Little Lady, the passenger boat involved in the incident, is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.
You can also watch video versions of this article on YouTube.
