Eight people were killed and dozens more were injured at an air show in the Mexican city of Chihuahua on Saturday when a monster truck lost control after jumping over cars and veered into a crowd, according to the New York Daily News.
Carlos Gonzalez, a spokesman for the Chihuahua state prosecutors' office, told the Associated Press that the driver of the truck, Francisco Velazquez, appeared to lose control of the truck. Some witnesses said that they could see Velazquez hit his head when the truck landed roughly when landing from the jump.
"The driver hit his head and his helmet flew off," Daniel Dominguez, a spectator, told the Associated Press. "The truck came directly where we were."
Velazquez was detained after the incident as authorities investigated whether or not he should be charged with manslaughter. The governor of Chihuahua said that an alcohol test given to Velazquez detected that he had alcohol in his system but did not say whether the driver was over the legal limit, according to the New York Daily News.
There was no barrier protecting the crowd from the truck as it drove out of control. Gonzalez told the Associated Press that at least one child was killed in the crash and that 80 people were hurt. Local hospitals were desperately calling for blood donations as 46 of the crash victims remained hospitalized as of Sunday, according to the Associated Press.
"I fell over, and when I turned around I saw the tire very close," Jesus Manuel Ibarra, a spectator who suffered hip and arm injuries in the incident, told the Associated Press. "It hit me and threw me to the other side."
The crash occurred on the second day of what was supposed to be a three-day event; the rest of the exposition was cancelled as authorities investigated whether or not safety regulations had been properly followed, the Associated Press reports.
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