2Xtreme Racing sponsored a monster truck rally which got way too extreme, sending 77 fans to the emergency room with carbon monoxide poisoning. A tornado of questions are swirling around about the ventilation system at the National Cattle Congress Hippodrome, while answers remain up in the air.
Truck rally turns toxic
Residents of Waterloo, Iowa turned out in droves to witness the 2Xtreme Racing monster truck rally on Saturday, February 13. By the time it was over, a “total of 77 people showed up at local hospital emergency rooms for treatment of carbon monoxide poisoning.”
The event was held indoors at the Hippodrome arena of the National Cattle Congress. Waterloo Fire Rescue crews transported some of the victims while others trickled in on their own.
MercyOne Northeast Iowa checked in “23 patients with symptoms consistent with carbon monoxide poisoning” over the weekend following the rally. More came in on Monday.
A UnityPoint Allen Hospital spokesperson confirms their “emergency department treated 31 people for carbon monoxide poisoning.” Grundy County Memorial Hospital handled 23 more.
Katie Hackman was at the rally, along with her sister and their families. She smelled something funny when she walked in. “They were spraying the field, so I thought maybe it was just the dust in the air, but you could smell exhaust.”
About halfway through she “started to get a headache” but didn’t think too much about it. “I just thought maybe I was tired, so I just wrote it off to that.” By the time the show ended around 9:20, Waterloo Fire Rescue crews were responding to multiple complaints of illness.
Cause under investigation
Fire crews are quick to point out that it will be a while before the investigation is final but the obvious cause of illness is “exhaust from the big trucks” during the rally. Ms. Hackman backs that up.
“Right at the end, the drivers were showing off their skills, and they were getting it pretty good. They let out a lot of exhaust right at the end, so I’m not surprised that it hit people pretty hard at the end.” By “pretty hard,” she means people puking and fainting all over the place.
Hackman soon observed “a young boy throwing up in the toilet.” He “was white as a ghost, and it was scary.” His mom “was frazzled, and understandably so. I just stood there trying to be there for her.” That’s about when the boys mom fainted. A trained nurse who was at the rally and happened to be in the bathroom, “stayed with the woman until paramedics arrived to treat her.”
They “got her onto the ground to lay down and got her backpack off of her. We were getting paper towels to put on her forehead because we weren’t sure what was going on yet, and we didn’t know if she had the fever or whatever.”
By the time they got out of the Hippodrome, Hackman relates “most of her family had headaches.” She was scared to let the kids go to sleep. She called a nurse friend for advice and they all made it through the night. “I had a headache till the next day,” Hackman insists. “I stayed up pretty late, and I checked my kids several times that night, and the cousins as well.”
One thing is certain, those attending the rally are demanding answers. “Someone needs to be held accountable because carbon monoxide can kill people.” A local news outlet talked to victims and report that several people who KWWL spoke to who attended the Monster Track show “believed there were ventilation issues in the Hippodrome.“
