Monster horror: Announcer crushed at JPJ truck event
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Medical personnel attend to the victim, whose pelvis was shattered in the incident.PHOTO BY REID DAVISWORTH
The emcee of Friday night’s monster truck performance at John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville— Ken Dickinson of Lyndhurst— appears to have been seriously injured when struck by one of the trucks, the Maine-based Crushstation. Newsplex asks if venue too small for such rallies. A Saturday morning call to promoter Checkered Flag Productions was not answered, but a call to UVA Hospital found that Dickinson is in the the post-operative area of the cardiovascular-thoracic unit. On Saturday afternoon, he was listed in critical condition, according to hospital spokesperson David Foreman, who offered no further information on his injuries or prognosis.
–updated 4:49pm, Saturday, March 13; critical condition
–updated 11:48am, Monday, March 15 with eyewitness photo
I was told when we moved up here that JPJ has some great things going on but one was the monster trucks venue that some say is too large and dangerous too. I hope this is a wakeup call to the organizers that this is way too big for JPJ! Sad that it took someone getting seriously injured to get this change I hope will happen now.
Went with my Cub Scouts to Monster Trucks at the Jack, it is a ridiculous venue for a monster truck event. Instead of a quality monster truck rally it just looks like the University trying to squeeze every dollar out of the Jack.
A quality monster truck rally?
Holy crap, that had to hurt. Hopefully the guy is all right. I always felt the JPJ was to small of a venue for such an event. Crazy!!!
I too feel this venue is to small for these trucks. Last show, last night!
FRIDAY, FRIDAY, FRIDAY!
Wow. Well, you know how Charlottesville is this city of culture huh? Late night concert venues with people getting kidnapped, eating dinner on a mall where you are assaulted with a Pavilion blasting out at 100 dbs, a stiptease joint, and monster truck events where the drivers run over people. It’s crushing fan yeah, baby!
I tell ya, I don’t know what to do with all that culture.
Why the Regress bites, part 547
This story is nowhere to be found on the frontpage of their website
Good job, Hawes
This is not the first time this has ever happened. In January of 2009, a promoter of Monster Trucks in Madison, WI walked out in front of the truck and was crushed. It’s a dangerous place to be. He had no idea the truck was there or was going to be there. “A lot of the direction that comes after driving over the cars is dependent on how the trucks hit the cars, and what happens with the trucks when they come to a landing,” so no one knows where the truck is going to be. He saw the first one go by and probably didn’t hear the second one. I have been to these kinds of shows before and know that there is so much noise you can’t tell where the sound is coming from.
JPJ is the largest indoor arena in the state. Or commonwealth.
Wanted for research study: people willing to subject themselves to exceedingly high noise levels and excessive carbon monoxide inhalation. We’ll pay you negative fifty dollars.
Time to head off to a cigarette smoking contest. Gotta love the local activities!
The JPJ is jinxed.
“A quality monster truck rally?”
could I second that?
um ya i second the “quality monster truck rally?” and the announcer shouldn’t have been so close to the trucks especially where there might be a possibility of him getting hurt like he did i feel for the guy but we cant blame it all on the size of the venue theres this thing called human error tht has a lot to do w/t accidents like this it coulda shoulda been prevented
http://www.komonews.com/news/37765479.html
Jan 17, 2009, similar sized arena, in Tacoma, WA. Spectator killed, event proceeds. Then end of the article catalogs other incidents of the last two decades.
I’ve been to plenty great truck shows,all outdoors tho. If u don’t like them don’t go
Wait, i haven’t heard about a striptease joint?? Where is that, i am all about supporting local businesses and all.
I went to this event 2 years ago to see what it was all about, and while i wouldn’t go again, i didn’t feel that it was excessively small. This seems to be a problem an events company getting a local announcer with little experience with this kind of event and a lack of communication and training in such a dangerous situation.
I do like blaming the jack, uva and c-ville for all of it though. So here goes, uva is a stuck up money grubbing horn, and intentionally tries to get people hurt to make the news. While Chancellorsville is a has been, stuck up gang infested slum of a city that doesn’t give their residents any services, but taxes too much to provide their residents with services. Oh and everyone is a cell centered, tax and spend liberal racist.
I think i covered it all.
Would the people involved like to go back and change things, sure, but unfortunately accidents happen.
“I think i covered it all.”
You also left out naive.
I’m getting quite tired of reading all of these comments that are saying that JPJ is too small for monster trucks. This accident has absolutely positively NOTHING to do with the size of the venue people!! Yes, these promoters were very un-professional but it’s also largely the announcers own fault. I mean he should have known better than to even be near the trucks while running. He shouldn’t have been on the floor at all. An announcer got killed several months ago by getting ran over byba monster truck named Samson in this same manner. All I can say is what in the world was this guy thinking and why is everyone just pointing their fingers and trying to find someone to blame. Blaming the venue? Come on people. Accidents happen. That’s common sense.
Yeah, wait to stick it to Chancellorsville, although you left out the part about Stonewall Jackson getting shot there.
Umm… that would be Chancellorsville.