The statues on Easter Island have stood for centuries, facing inland to watch over a community that reveres them as memorials of their ancestors. Made of volcanic rock, they have braved many challenges over the years: climate change, lichen growth, damage from livestock and the encroaching development of tourism.

Add a runaway pickup truck to that list.

The unoccupied truck, which had been parked, rolled on Sunday onto an ahu, a ceremonial mortuary structure that supports about half of the nearly 1,000 statues, or their toppled remains, local officials and archaeologists said.

Ma’u Henua, the island’s cultural heritage organization, posted photographs of the crash on its Facebook page, showing the vehicle perched on top of an intact statue that had been on its side near the ahu where it had once stood.

“We reiterate the importance of taking care of the heritage we have in our park,” the organization said, calling the crash “seriously damaging.”