A lobster-themed monster truck performing at the Topsham Fairgrounds clipped a powerline during a jump on Saturday, toppling utility poles into a crowd of spectators.
According to The Associated Press, police reported that two people were hospitalized and others sustained minor injuries.
The event was part of the Renegade Monster Truck Tour, according to the tour’s website.
During the event, monster trucks circled a dirt track with several jumps. Crushstation, the monster truck involved in the incident, is named as a play on the word crustacean.
Video footage of the event, per WCVB Channel 5 Boston, captures the moment Crushstation goes airborne and hits the powerline stretched across the track. Spectators can be seen scrambling to get out of the way as utility poles and live wires fall around them.
Power was shut down throughout Topsham to allow fire officials to treat and evacuate individuals from the scene, according to News Center Maine.
Mike Hersom, who attended the event with his three-year-old son, recounted his experience to News Center Maine.
“We had gone to the event last year and my son loved it, so obviously we were thinking, let’s go again this year,” Hersom said. “It was the last monster truck round they were going to do, so I asked my son, ‘Do you want to get a little bit closer?’”
Hersom left the grandstand with his son to get a closer look at the action near the track alongside of a crowd of other people doing likewise.
“A monster truck hit the jump, went straight up. I saw it hit the wire and then the chain reaction happened,” Hersom continued. “People fled. I grabbed my son immediately and ran in the opposite direction.”
While Hersom and his son only suffered minor injuries, he described, “I remember seeing an older folk on the ground, clearly had been injured from the incident.”
Tim Harmon, a crew member with the Topsham Fairgrounds, told News Center Maine, “We’re putting everything higher.”
He explained they replaced the poles with taller ones. “It just makes more room for everybody and it’s safer,” he said.