A devastating incident at a Colombian monster truck exhibition has left three people dead and more than 40 injured, after a performance vehicle veered off its designated track and crashed into a crowd of spectators on Sunday, local authorities confirmed Monday. Among the fatalities was 10-year-old Hellen Velarde, who had been attending the event in Popayan, a city in southwestern Colombia, as a special birthday treat.
Local media reports confirm a second minor girl and a young adult woman also lost their lives in the crush. Footage shared widely across social media platforms captures the vehicle lifting into a wheelie stunt before it swerved off course, smashing through the concrete barriers that were supposed to separate spectators from the driving track.
In the immediate aftermath of the collision, widespread chaos broke out as hundreds of attendees scrambled to escape the path of the out-of-control truck, pushing past one another to reach safer ground. The Popayan local fire department confirmed that more than 40 people were hurt in the incident, with several suffering life-threatening critical injuries. Multiple children are included among the wounded, local media has reported.
Hellen’s grandfather, Miller Velarde, harshly criticized event organizers for the lack of basic safety protocols, saying the exhibition operated with “practically no safety measures” — a failure he described as nothing short of a “crime.” Another of Velarde’s grandchildren remains in intensive care following emergency surgery to treat a severe head injury sustained in the crash.
Popayan Mayor Juan Carlos Munoz has launched a full official investigation into the tragedy, releasing a public statement saying the preventable disaster “should never have happened” and promising to hold any responsible parties accountable for the deaths and injuries. The incident has sparked widespread public anger across the country over inadequate event safety regulation.