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Six-Year-Old Boy Killed in Monster Truck Accident at Tacoma Dome

Posted Jan 17, 2009 11:25PM By Eric McErlain (RSS feed)

Filed Under: Sports of an Extreme Nature, Breaking News

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Tragedy struck at the Tacoma Dome on Friday night during a monster truck show when debris shot into the crowd, killing a six-year-old boy and sending another adult male to the hospital.

Earlier on Saturday, the Tacoma News-Tribune printed a statement from Jessie Hizey, whose six-year old son Sebastian died at a local hospital soon after being transported there from the arena:
A Frisbee-sized piece of metal slammed into the side of Sebastian's head and "took a chunk of his skull ... around 3 inches long and 3 inches wide," the father said. The accident occurred at about 9:30 p.m. Father and son were enjoying the noise, action and drama of the Monster Truck Jam when Sebastian was "struck by a large metal ring from one of the trucks," the statement said. Natural High was the truck that was performing at the time of the accident, but it's uncertain from where the piece came. An adult man also was hospitalized, but his identity and condition have not been disclosed.

Jessie Hizey described the shrapnel as about three-quarters of an inch thick, weighing between seven and 12 pounds.

The family is "grief stricken and angry" that no one from the show has contacted them or expressed condolences, the father said.
The Web site for the truck in question, Natural High, has been pulled down, though you can find the Google cache by clicking here. Not surprisingly, somebody was in the crowd shooting digital video at the time. Click here to see the raw video that KING-TV in Seattle posted of the truck doing what appears to be some tricks, but be sure to follow the video to the end, where you'll see an individual retrieving debris from the event floor. For the full report from KING-TV, one which includes a harrowing report from an eyewitness, click here.


Also, according to the KING-TV report:
Witnesses who were sitting behind the victims say debris from a red truck flew some 30 to 50 feet into the stands. They say there was no netting or glass between the stands and the arena floor.
To someone like me who has never attended a monster truck event, that seems like something of a revelation. Even the NHL now has netting above the glass on either end of the ice, though that wasn't instituted until after 14-year-old Brittanie Cecil was struck by a puck at a Columbus Blue Jackets game in 2002 before dying a few days later.

Compounding the anger of some of the eyewitnesses, was the fact that the show was allowed to continue while arena staff waited for help to arrive. According to a statement in the KING-TV report, staff allowed the event to go on because they believed that if they cleared the arena immediately, the departing crowd could very well have impeded emergency personnel arriving on the scene.

Despite the child's death, the 2009 Monster Jam Finals continued through the rest of the weekend. Two more shows were performed on Saturday and another two held on Sunday. The lights were dimmed and a brief moment of silence was held at the arena before the second show on Saturday night.

As it turns out, there is a governing body for the sport, and it's the Monster Truck Racing Association based in Union, Missouri. In business for more than 20 years, the association's rule book makes it clear that all vehicles must be inspected before the start of every season. Here's one passage from the home page of MTRA's Web site that seems more than a little insensitive in light of Friday's events:
When "it" happens, and "it" gets together with "sh" and runs into the fan, the $2000 an hour shister lawyer employed by the people affected when "it" happened to you will be looking for any defect in your preparations for "it". Rely on the fact that the lawyer acting for the people affected by "it" will be looking for "preventability" i.e.: could you have prevented "it" from happening? Being an MTRA member is the best opening defence you and your $2000 a day lawyer can have. The history and reputation of the MTRA will be invaluable at such times. Beyond this members of the Board of directors will be available to be called in your defence.
That certainly provides an interesting insight into the mind of the person who wrote that passage.

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