Last Friday night, Jessie Hizey of Tacoma, WA, took his six-year-old son, Sebastian, to Monster Jam, a monster truck show that tours the nation. It was Sebastian’s first monster truck show and he was quite excited.

One of the trucks in the show was a silver and red behemoth called Natural High. As it was performing “doughnuts”—a maneuver in which the driver simultaneously holds down the accelerator and brakes causing the wheels to smoke and the vehicle to spin—a metal ring the size of a Frisbee spun out from under the hood and hurtled into the stands 20 feet above the Tacoma Dome arena floor. The roughly 10 pound chunk of metal struck Sebastian in the head before careening into another spectator.

Sebastian, bleeding profusely, collapsed into the lap of his 10-year-old sister before being rushed to the hospital. The next morning, he was pronounced dead. Cause of death: severe brain trauma. (The injuries of the other spectator who got hit were less severe.)

The promoter of the show, Feld Motor Sports, had what one public official referred to as “a stellar safety record” and had never experienced anything like this before. Company officials expressed profound sympathy for Sebastian’s family and promised to take measures to ensure that such a “freak accident” never happens again.

Needless to say, none of this provides much comfort to the Hizeys. “You go out for a night of fun and you lose your son,” whispered the boy’s father, his face twisted in grief.

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