TACOMA, Wash. - Monster Jam is coming back to Tacoma.
Last January, the three-day event at the Tacoma Dome was brought to a temporary halt after a part flew into the stands, killing 6-year-old Sebastian Hizey. The show was not cancelled, and promoters maintained it was safe.
So safe, that Tacoma will welcome the show back.
"We're looking forward to it," says Bill Easterly, Feld Motorsports Director of Operations. "There was never a decision not to come back."
The City of Tacoma acknowledges it has rented out the Tacoma Dome for Monster Jam from January 15 to January17, and made no special safety requests.
It's also the same weekend Sebastian died.
"It makes me sick," says Phyllis Hizey, Sebastian's stepmother. She was there the night the part flew into the second deck of the Tacoma Dome stands, killing the 6-year-old.
Phyllis and Jessie, Sebastian's father, say they're still grieving over the loss of their beloved son.
"It's not that we just lost a son, but we witnessed it." says Jessie.
The Hizeys settled a civil suit against Feld, but say it doesn't address safety in the arena.
"I have brought up putting up netting, and things like that, and their point with putting up netting is netting is not going to stop something from flying into the stands," says Phyllis. " It's going to rip through the netting. It would certainly slow it down and cause a less severe accident."
"it's a show that's designed to break things," said Jessie. "I mean what's safe about a huge truck running over cars?"
Mark Arndt, an engineer who examined the truck and parts in the Tacoma case says it was "poor maintenance, and poor welding" that caused the truck "Natural High" to lose its driveshaft.
"The driveshaft broke, and it became more or less like a propeller and that ultimately became the mechanism that produced one of these large rings in the dirves shaft in the protection system, being propelled into the stadium," he said.
There have been seven deaths at Monster Truck shows since 1992.
A Massachusetts man also says the Tacoma incident, which involved part of the driveshaft flying into the stands, happened to him in 2003. In that incident, he claims, the part landed at his feet and took a chunk out of the concrete in front of him.
Feld says it's aware of that incident, but maintains it has made changes to keep the shows safe.That includes tying down obstacles, to prevents debris from flying, and making sure truck driveshafts are painted a bright color so problems can be spotted from the arena floor.
Easterly says his company has also started inspecting trucks prior to performance, rather than prior to the show, and there is an extra safety inspector at all shows. Feld maintains Sebastian's death was "a freak accident."
The Hizeys disagree.
"Does it have to happen twice, three times? I mean, what the line drawn in the sand, enough is enough, cause it ain't one," said Hizey.
Feld plans on starting its advertising push for Monster Jam next month.
The Hizeys settled a civil suit with Feld a few weeks ago. No criminal charges were ever filed. Feld says there was never any mandate to change the drive line setup. They're regulated by the U.S. Hot Rod Association which Feld also owns.
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