Two Stuntmen Injured During Wild Four-Person Backflip Stunt

The Nitro Circus team, made up of the world’s greatest ‘action sports stars’, is certainly no stranger to danger. Headed up by fearless freestyle motocross rider Travis Pastrana, the team have made a name for themselves through performing numerous death defying stunts. Base jumping, motorcycle back-flips and insane mega ramp tricks are all in a day’s work for the unhinged daredevils.

After experiencing great success with their DVDs and MTV television shows, the team decided to take their show on the road with Nitro Circus Live. They’ve been touring since 2010, and have performed in numerous countries including Australia, New Zealand, China, and the UK, to name just a few.

Nitro Circus Live was performing in Scotland yesterday, at the Glasgow based SSE Hydro arena. To carry out one of their famous stunts, the four person back-flip, the team reportedly asked for three audience members to be pillions on the bike. It turns out that in reality, those audience members were professional stuntmen employed by the team. A video has now emerged that shows what happened next.

When the stunt is performed correctly, the bike should accelerate up the steep ramp at high speed, allowing the rider to get enough air-time to flip the heavy machine. (You can see how the stunt should be performed below.) However, this time the stunt went terribly wrong. Instead of accelerating up the ramp, the bike slowed down possibly due to stalling, causing the riders to fall from the top of the ramp, straight down onto the hard floor below.

The MC whose main job is to hype up the crowd was clearly shocked, saying:

“That is the worst crash we have ever had. It’s obviously not planned, occasionally something can go wrong. It’s not meant to go wrong so we’re taking a moment.”

In the video you can see that one stuntman was able to get up and walk away, but it looks like the other riders took a big hit. It turns out that two people were badly injured, suffering facial and hip injuries. Both patients were taken to Glasgow Royal Infirmary by ambulance.

The fact that the stuntmen were presented as audience members clearly shocked the audience with one fan tweeting: “At nitro circus ssehydro. 4 man back flip just failed. Hope the members of the public ok.” Thankfully we can now confirm that no members of the public were injured in the stunt.

Source: BBC News