Remembering the disgusting Dave Matthews Band bus incident 20 years later

CHICAGO (CBS) -- It's been 20 years since the driver of the Dave Matthews Band tour bus band made a disgusting mistake along the Chicago River.

The driver hit the eject button on the septic tank on the bus while it was on the Kinzie Street bridge, sending 800 pounds of human waste through the metal grates on the deck—and right down on to people taking an architectural tour boat cruise on the river below. Tourists were soaked in what was described in the Chicago Tribune as a "brownish-yellow slurry."

More than 100 passengers were on board that day, Aug. 8, 2004. The boat immediately returned to its dock and was disinfected, and officials with the Chicago Architectural Foundation, which operates the tour, offered refunds. They said they received several calls from angry passengers who also demanded compensation for clothing and personal items.

Lynn LaPlante drove through the waste that poured over people on board "Chicago's Little Lady."

"The windows were open, it was a beautiful day, and we were driving, and all of a sudden the most deplorable smell hit us," she said. "I think it's become more of a touchstone, like a cultural or iconic Chicago touchstone now. … I look at it with humor. I think it's funny."

The driver of the bus, Stefan Wohl, admitted he dumped the 800 pounds of waste from the bus. He pleaded guilty to reckless conduct and discharging contaminants to cause water pollution, and was sentenced to 18 months probation, 150 hours of community service and the maximum $10,000 fine, which was paid to Friends of the Chicago River, CBS News reported at the time.

The bus, which reportedly was used by band violinist Boyd Tinsley, was not occupied at the time of the incident.

Prosecutors said the band cooperated in the investigation, flying Tinsley to Chicago to be interviewed by authorities and bringing the bus, one of a number used by the band, back for inspection.

The Dave Matthews Band eventually agreed to pay $200,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by state Attorney General Lisa Madigan.

Wohl never drove a bus for the band again.

Amateur Chicago historian plans documentary on bus incident

On this 20th anniversary, there is a renewed interest in the misadventure on the Chicago River's North Branch.

In 2020 during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Lucas Xavier Simes wrote the Wikipedia article about the event—he said there was no Wikipedia article about it before that. The documentary director said he found a lot of interesting information from the time it happened—including a remark in which then-Mayor Richard M. Daley called the dumping "absolutely unacceptable," but said the Dave Matthews Band was still a really good band.

"I found a lot of very interesting details," said Simes. "But one thing I did not find was firsthand accounts."

Simes is now launching a campaign on the anniversary to find and speak to as many witnesses as possible for a documentary about the event—titled "The Crappening."

"What I would like to accomplish with the documentary is to find the people who were on the boat—the people who were actually dumped upon; perhaps one of the 80 people who were described by the State of Illinois as having been 'soaked' on that day—and really get their stories, and hear how it was from a first-person perspective, and put it on film—which it never has been," Simes said.

Simes said he has already heard reports that his Kickstarter page for the film has already picked up some comments from people who said they were on the boat, and another four were located through new articles.

"There was an article by the Tribune which said only now, people are able to laugh about this," said Simes.

But not everyone has been eager to relive that day. Simes also found a man who posted about his experience on the boat on the "Something Awful" right after it happened—to the disbelief of other forum users at it had yet to make the news at that point. This man refused to take part.

On what was known at the time as CBS 2 News, Dana Kozlov talked to one of the passengers who was drenched in the deluge—Mike Scarpelli. He gave a graphic description of what happened.

"There were some older people on there that had limited mobility. They were doused from head to toe. Their hair was soaking wet—literally covered in urine and feces," Scarpelli said. "There was a pregnant lady who could barely contain herself."

Tracy Dangott was also one of the people in what he calls "the splash zone" on this day 20 years ago.

"This day every year, my phone seems to explode with one topic only," he said. "It's like life will not allow me to forget—as much as I may have wanted to.

Dangott spoke to CBS Chicago on Thursday. He vividly remembers being caught "in the thick of it."

"It's just rough because you're on the boat. They go through these standard schticks: 'More open, great bridges than any other city in the country. Don't look up, lest you get a true Taste of Chicago," Dangott said. "And within minutes, that's sort of what happens. It's one of those things of life imitating comedy; imitating art. You can't make it up."

As is always the case 20 years after an event, how long ago the Dave Matthews bus incident seems is in the eye of the beholder. There are now full-grown adults who are too young to have any memory of it, but it might as well have been yesterday compared to something like Disco Demolition Night—which happened 45 years ago last month.

Simes—who pointed out that he himself was only 8 when the Dave Matthews dumping happened, but still read a news article about it at the time—said there is some evidence that the public perception of the incident has changed in recent years.

"Up until recently, this all seemed like a bizarre dream. It kind of seems like something in the distant past of Chicago, and now it's really entered the psyche of Chicago," he said.

The Dave Matthews bus dumping is also one of those events that get out-of-towners' attention, Simes said.

"It's very similar to stories like the Chicago rat hole, where it's things that you tell people from out of town and they go, 'I cannot even possibly believe this happened in your city,'" he said.

Famed Chicago mascots—Benny the Bull, Staley Da Bear, and Tommy Hawk—paid their respects on the Kinzie Street Bridge in a video posted to social media Thursday morning—drying their tears with toilet paper in front of a temporary marker.

But one group less willing to jump on board the ride down memory lane is Chicago's First Lady tour company, which does not think it's any funnier now than it was 20 years ago.

"There is certainly no joy in reliving the 2004 event that traumatized our passengers, crew and family businesses," the company said in a statement. "We choose to not let what took place that day diminish our contributions in showcasing the city we love with the world."

Dangott said he has been on the architectural boat tour since the septic evacuation—and he is trying to move on.

"It's one part urban myth and another part a true story," Dangott said. "It's sort of the modern-day Mrs. O'Leary's cow."

But certain smells still remind him of that moment 20 years ago.

"You know, porta-potties on the summer day. When the garbage truck goes by, it makes me think of it. New York," he said.

CBS News Chicago reached out to the publicist for the Dave Matthews Band, but had not heard back late Thursday.