Unusual Monster Truck Incidents

There have been various monster truck accidents throughout the years of monster truck history. While there have been few injuries, there have also been a handful of unusual accidents as well. NOTE: None of the incidents below were fatal.

Bigfoot and Carolina Crusher
During a race, Bigfoot and Carolina Crusher crashed in during the same race in nearly the same way at nearly the exact same time. Because of the strange timing and resemblance of the two crashes, this remains one of the strangest crashes in monster truck history. It is also the only documented monster truck race where both trucks involved in the race crashed.

Boogey Van
Boogey Van was involved in a infamous accident in Pontiac where the truck had crashed full on into the stadium wall, loosing practically all of its tires. Thankfully, the driver was not seriously injured.

Carolina Crusher and Snake Bite
During a race between Carolina Crusher and Snake Bite, Carolina Crusher lost control and crashed into Snake Bite, literally "crushing" the truck by going right over it. Snakebite's fiberglass body was totally destroyed, but most of the chassis was still intact. No injuries happened from the accident.

Grave Digger
In 1992, Grave Digger 3 was involved in a serious accident during a race against Taurus at a show in Providence Rhode Island; the truck was being driven that day by driver Lyle Hancock. The truck bounced over a set of crush cars and was thrown forward, then back onto its back two tires, and then forward again, being flung up the side wall, colliding with a camera and nearly hit spectators in the first few rows of seats.

Amazingly enough, the camera that it collided with was not destroyed, nor was the camera operator nor any other spectator seriously injured.

Jailbreak
Jailbreak was involved in an unusual accident in 2006 when the truck broke a water pipe inside a Georgia arena. The show the incident took place at had a concrete floor without any dirt at all. During a race, the truck jumped the cars, then came down hard after the car pile and struck the floor with enough force to break a water pipe that was underneath the surface of the track. Nobody was injured and the driver escaped from the truck just seconds after the incident. The show was delayed for almost an hour due to the incident.

Major Obsession
This truck is famous for its accident in Tacoma, where the throttle stuck during racing and hit a cement barrier placed about 5 feet from wall, which launched it up the stadium wall.

Napa
During a public, exhibit car crush at a NAPA auto parts store, the NAPA truck crushed a set of cars before plowing into a crowd of people, then the truck rolled onto some train tracks. Although there were injuries, this was a non-fatal event. It is also fortunate that no freight train came down the tracks the truck landed on, otherwise, the truck would have been destroyed.

Snake Bite
Snake Bite was involved in a famous crash in 1991 in Union Grove Wisconsin, where the truck, being driven by Colt Cobra and racing against Fred Shafer in Bear Foot in Round 1, jumped the "hydra barriers" (plastic units filled with water: water could even be seen splashing out during the collision) and crashed into a concessions stand shed in a nearby parking lot. The shed was completely destroyed, but thankfully no people were inside it at the time of the crash, so nobody was injured. On the other hand, a 2,000lbs industrial freezer, which was inside the shed, was destroyed in the crash, left out in full view partially crushed by the front tires from the truck's resting position, where the truck was left throughout the rest of the show.

Wild Stang
Wild Stang is known for a famous crash which occurred in Cayuga Ontario Canada during Labor Day weekend in 1988. The truck did a car crush, doing a wheelie, then came crashing down and flipped forward, leaving driver Barry Packard (NOTE: some sources say it was Cliff himself driving) trapped underneath the truck. The incident was similar to that of Paula Harbuck's crash in Bear Foot (which is the first recorded monster truck crash), however, while Harbuck was stuck for only a short time, Packard was stuck for an entire 45 minutes before being finally freed. Thankfully, he was not seriously injured in the crash. In the early days of monster truck competition, crashes were seldom and so trucks were not particularly designed with crashes in mind. Also, with today's monster trucks weighing in at 10,000lbs, old school monster trucks were much heavier than that, with some weighing in as heavy as 13,000lbs, 33% or 1/3 heavier than today's standard. This incident could very well be the main driving force to evolve the design of the monster truck to achieve higher standards of safety.