KTLA

‘Burning Man’ Death: Woman Dies After Falling Under Bus at Festival

A man looks at the Burning Man effigy as it is prepared for the Burning Man Festival at Black Rock City in Nevada 29 August 2000. The festival is a spontaneous encounter of artists, performers and spectators, where the audience is expected to interact and collaborate during a week long event. The fifty two feet effigy is burned at the end of the festival. (Credit: HECTOR MATA/AFP/Getty Images)

A woman was killed Thursday after falling under a bus at the annual Burning Man event in northern Nevada, according to a statement on the festival’s website.

The bus was filled with participants at the week-long event, the statement added.

The victim was identified as 29-year-old Alicia Louise Cipicchio of Jackson, Wyoming.

Burning Man organizers said they were working with the Pershing County Sheriff’s Office to determine how Cipicchio fell from the bus.

No additional details were provided about the incident.

“This is a terrible accident,” Burning Man co-founder Marian Goodell said in the statement. “Our thoughts and prayers are with her family, friends and campmates. Black Rock Rangers and Emergency Services Department staff are providing support to those affected.”

In 2003, another young woman was killed after falling from an “art car” at the festival and being run over by it. The victim, Katherine Lampman, was a 21-year-old art student in San Francisco, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

The week-long counter-culture festival, which is held in late summer in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert, bills itself as an “experiment in temporary community dedicated to radical self-expression and radical self-reliance,” according to its website.

The festival is perhaps best known for the burning of a large wooden human effigy.

A record 68,000 people attended last year’s Burning Man, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated the victim died after falling under a bus traveling to Burning Man. In fact, the vehicle was at the festival when the woman suffered fatal injuries.