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What caused monster truck to slam into crowd

Posted at 1:19 PM, Sep 04, 2012
and last updated 2012-09-04 13:19:37-04

HARRISBURG, OR (KEZI) – There is new information about what caused a monster truck to lose control and slam into a crowd of spectators, leaving three people injured in Oregon Saturday.

"His hydraulic steering broke and the truck veered right, hard right, and he had no control at that point," said Daniel Mills, the director of “Monster Air 2012″ show.

Mills said that luckily the mishap was not worse because of the venue's setup. 

"At ground level, that would have been a much worse situation," said Mills. "The berm being raised like that is a barrier, there's a mud bog strip at the base of that was supposed to act as a barrier also, but he just clipped the edge of that." 

In fact, Mills said that raised dirt barrier, which is taller than most, helped protect the crowd. However, Mills admits that he and his staff are learning from the incident.

"We did everything we could, that we thought was possible, to keep everybody safe here and we're not going to stop," said Mills. "So we're going to keep adding to it, and we learned something. Sometimes you only learn when you see it happen."

Some of the fans who saw the accident still turned out for another show the next day. 

"I was excited either way," said one woman. "I just decided that I'd probably sit a little bit further away and still enjoy it." 

Another man who attends the shows said the accident is a reminder of why he and his family opt not to sit too close.

"You're always thinking "what if," so we don't sit close for that reason... with the little ones we can't move quite as fast." 

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