One year after tragedy, monster trucks draw crowd
Despite an accident at last year’s show that killed a 6-year-old boy and seriously injured another man, most monster truck fans were not worried about their safety Saturday.
A crowd of mostly families and children poured into the Tacoma Dome on Saturday afternoon for the Monster Jam truck show.
Quote from the article:
A crowd of mostly families and children poured into the Tacoma Dome on Saturday afternoon for the Monster Jam truck show.
Quote from the article:
| We feel for what happened – but our boys enjoy it and we feel like it’s safe,” said Dan Angellar, who attended the show with his wife and two sons, ages 7 and 3. Amie Kruckman and her family drove from Portland to see the show at the Tacoma Dome – because the one here is “bigger and better,” Kruckman said. She, too, knew of last year’s incident, but still made the trek for the show this year. “I’m not worried,” she said before the show. “I’m sure it was a freak accident.” Many of the fans noticed that additional seating areas in the dome were roped off for safety, including the section where Sebastian Hizey had been sitting. The Graham Elementary School kindergartner was killed Jan. 16, 2009, when a chunk of metal flew off one of the monster trucks and soared into the stands. An Edgewood man, Eric W. Smith, was also seriously injured. Smith has since filed a lawsuit against Feld Motor Sports, the company that produces the shows. Hizey’s family settled a legal claim with Feld last summer. Monster Jam officials said they’ve worked hard to improve the safety of the shows, including tethering tires, tie bars, sway bars and driveline loops to truck frames and roping off seats to create a safety buffer. Safety officials on the side of the truck track have remote ignition interrupters, or kill switches, they can use to instantly stop a truck. Since last year’s accident, certain parts of the truck have been brightly painted so that the safety officials can better see from the sidelines when something is loose or amiss. “More than anything, coming back to Tacoma this year, our focus was how could we make (the safety) better,” Amy McWethy, Feld Motor Sports spokeswoman, said Saturday. “No one ever wants this to happen again,” she said. The monster truck fans Saturday remained focused on having a good time. They cheered and whooped for their favorite trucks and drivers – including Tacoma resident Roger Sidell, driver of truck Captain USA. Kids ran around wearing tire-shaped ear muffs to protect their ears from the noise of the revving engines. The lucky ones got huge, stuffed trucks from the Feld Motor Sport vendors or Monster Jam T-shirts. Saturday was 11-year-old Malik Blasingame’s first live Monster Jam show. He mostly watches the events on TV. His favorite part? “The competition.” He said. “And being able to see (the truck) Maximum Destruction.” Source: One year after tragedy, monster trucks draw crowd 
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