It’s one thing to spectate at an extreme sports event; it’s another to participate. People in the stands pay money to watch dangerous stunts without performing them themselves, but that doesn’t mean they’re in the clear. Fans at a monster truck event in Maine found this out when one of the machines jumped, clipped a power line, and knocked the transformer into the crowd.
Local police reported multiple injuries resulting from the incident in Topsham, Maine, on Saturday. It occurred at the Topsham Fairgrounds around 2 p.m. as the Crushstation monster truck rounded the oval dirt track. Fan footage from the event shows the truck taking a relatively modest jump, snagging the electrical line, and dragging several poles down with it.
Mike Herson, who experienced the incident firsthand with his three-year-old, told news outlet WMTW, “Everything happened so fast. The transformer came down literally within feet of us.
“I quickly picked (my son) up, grabbed him, and walked out of the way, but it all happened so fast.”
I spoke with Chris Teague, a contributor at The Drive who happens to live next to the Topsham Fairgrounds. He wasn’t at the event, though he was home at the time of the incident. He told me, “Our power lines started smoking and caught on fire, and the power was out for a couple of hours.”
“I’ve been a couple of times but stopped because there’s nothing separating the trucks from people other than a 70-year-old chainlink fence,” Teague added.
Topsham firefighters were on the scene at the time of the incident. Soon, other emergency personnel arrived to help care for the injured bystanders. Chief of Topsham Police Department Marc Hagan then released a statement on Saturday saying:
“One spectator was struck and injured by equipment on the utility pole and transported by ambulance to Maine Medical Center. A second subject was injured and transported by ambulance to Midcoast Hospital in Brunswick. Brunswick Fire personnel responded and assisted Topsham in treating several persons who suffered minor injuries during the incident.”
It’s unclear how many others were hurt. The driver, who was competing in the Renegade Monster Truck Tour, was uninjured. Hagan and the rest of Topsham Police Department are still investigating the crash.
This is a situation that, although unlikely, could’ve been predicted, and it’s surely one that attendees will never forget. Jenna Lindsay was there, and she told WMTW that her boyfriend noticed the low-hanging wire earlier in the day and decided to move seats. “I don’t like to place fault or blame, but I think that people need to take more time when planning these events and really looking at what could happen. Nobody wants this stuff to happen,” she said.
The main takeaway is this: Anytime you’re around high-flying machines that also weigh 12,000 pounds, there’s a non-zero chance disaster can strike. Be mindful of that next time you see someone sticking their phone through the fence to get a better angle for the camera.
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