Monster Truck Crashes Into Ill. Crowd

DEKALB, Ill. – A monster truck performing stunts in front of an auto parts store veered into a crowd of spectators Thursday, injuring at least nine people, officials said.

Nine people, including a mother with four children, were taken to Kishwaukee Community Hospital in DeKalb, and one was later transported to St. Anthony Hospital in Rockford, hospital officials said.

All were in fair condition, and one person was being evaluated for possible admission to the hospital, hospital spokeswoman Sharon Emanuelson said. Another three people signed releases refusing medical treatment, DeKalb Fire Chief Lanny Russell told The (DeKalb) Daily Chronicle.

As part of the demonstration, part of a monster truck tour sponsored by NAPA, the truck drove over four cars, crushing them.

The truck became airborne over the vehicles after the driver revved the engine on the fourth pass, and when it landed on the other side, it did not stop and plowed through the crowd, witnesses told the paper.

They said the truck then knocked down part of a wooden fence and crossed railroad tracks before striking a chain-link fence on the other side.

"There was just this sound of steel crunching," DeKalb resident James Vesely said. "I ran over to see if it hit anybody’s car, and I saw a woman and a little girl around 3 years old lying on the ground with dirt on them."

NAPA officials on the scene declined to comment, the newspaper reported.

Tim Scanlan, a general manager at Napa Auto Parts’ midwest distribution center in Naperville, said a monster truck had been at the company’s DeKalb store on Thursday, but declined to comment on the whether it was involved in an accident.

"I don’t know very many details of it at all," he said.

A spokesman for Napa’s parent company could not immediately be reached for comment and the telephone at the auto parts store near the accident site was busy.

DeKalb police would not immediately comment.

The manager of a bicycle shop on the block where the accident happened said he didn’t see the incident but saw the truck performing stunts beforehand, and estimated at least 100 people were watching.

"It looked very precarious," said Tobie DePauw, manager of North Central Cyclery.