Kid Killed, Man Injured At Monster Truck Rally
Last weekend, a six-year-old boy named Sebastian Hizey from Puyallup was killed by a tragically errant flying piece of monster truck at the Tacoma Dome. Another man, Eric Smith, is still in the hospital with life-threatening injuries from another piece of metal. According to the Seattle Times, the Tacoma Dome doesn't usually have plexiglass, netting, or any protective measure between the audience and the monster trucks during rallies, but some are calling that policy into question.
The City of Tacoma is investigating further into what exactly happened on Friday night, but here's a detail from the Tacoma News Tribune we'd missed while reading the earlier coverage: "The red-and-silver Chevrolet SSR reportedly been disabled earlier in the show and was removed by forklift" before the monster truck in question was returned to the tracks. Is it standard procedure to put trucks at high risk for falling apart back into the show? Seems like that's part of the appeal, now that we think about it: that the trucks just might, perhaps even probably should, fall apart as they careen around and over things. In this case, the potential danger turned into a really sad news story we've been wanting to ignore.
Later this week, a fund will open at U.S. Bank so that concerned readers can contribute to Sebastien's family. Lights & Sirens also announces a special fundraiser for the family at an Applebee's down south and lists other businesses accepting donations on behalf of the bereaved.
