Monster truck crashes into crowd at Colombian exhibition, killing two, injuring 37

A monster truck lost control at the Monster Truck 2026 exhibition in Popayan, Colombia, and plowed into spectators, killing at least two people and injuring 37. Video footage circulating after the crash showed the truck clearing an obstacle before veering off course and striking the crowd near the Bulevar Rose lot, a scene that turned a planned show into a mass-casualty emergency.

Local officials said the vehicle crossed safety barriers after the maneuver, a detail that puts crowd protection and event design at the center of the investigation. One Popayan city official said one of the dead was a 10-year-old girl, deepening the shock over a crash that appears to have hit families as well as other attendees. Some Colombian outlets reported that the driver was a woman who was also injured and taken to hospital.

Octavio Guzman, the governor of Cauca, confirmed the deaths and injuries and expressed solidarity with the victims. Juan Carlos Munoz, the mayor of Popayan, ordered a rigorous investigation into what happened and who bears responsibility. The rising toll sharpened questions over whether the event had adequate barriers, emergency planning and licensing for a high-risk exhibition involving a heavy vehicle moving at speed near a live audience.

The accident also raised broader accountability concerns because monster truck events are built around spectacle, but that spectacle depends on tight control. The vehicle is meant to perform within a contained course, not among spectators. When that separation fails, a promotion becomes a public safety failure. The crash revived comparisons with the 2014 monster truck disaster in Haaksbergen, Netherlands, where three spectators were killed and 28 injured, a case that also triggered scrutiny of permits and crowd-safety planning.

Popayan, a city of about 352,150 people in 2025, is no stranger to major public gatherings. It is known as Colombia’s white city and for Holy Week processions recognized by UNESCO as intangible cultural heritage. That profile makes the fatal crash especially consequential: in a city used to managing large crowds, the failure at a ticketed exhibition will test whether the standards for barriers, oversight and emergency response matched the danger spectators faced.