diff --git a/apps/monitor/src/runner.rs b/apps/monitor/src/runner.rs
index 8d0601e..9e7870d 100644
--- a/apps/monitor/src/runner.rs
+++ b/apps/monitor/src/runner.rs
@@ -216,22 +216,32 @@ async fn run_curl(
     }
     args.push(url.to_string());
 
-    // Run curl synchronously in a blocking thread — simple and reliable
+    // Run curl in a real OS thread, signal completion via tokio oneshot.
+    // std::thread detaches completely from tokio's runtime, so a hung curl
+    // process can't block other monitors. The tokio::time::timeout on the
+    // oneshot receiver gives us a hard async deadline.
     let args_owned = args.clone();
     let tmp_owned = tmp.clone();
-    let result = tokio::task::spawn_blocking(move || {
+
+    let (tx, rx) = tokio::sync::oneshot::channel::<(std::io::Result<std::process::ExitStatus>, Vec<u8>)>();
+    std::thread::spawn(move || {
         let status = std::process::Command::new("curl")
             .args(&args_owned)
             .stdin(Stdio::null())
             .stdout(Stdio::null())
-            .stderr(Stdio::piped())
+            .stderr(Stdio::null())
             .status();
         let output = std::fs::read(&tmp_owned).unwrap_or_default();
         let _ = std::fs::remove_file(&tmp_owned);
-        (status, output)
-    }).await.map_err(|e| format!("spawn_blocking error: {e}"))?;
+        let _ = tx.send((status, output));
+    });
 
-    let (status_result, raw_bytes) = result;
+    let (status_result, raw_bytes) = tokio::time::timeout(
+        std::time::Duration::from_secs_f64(timeout_secs + 2.0),
+        rx
+    ).await
+        .map_err(|_| format!("timed out after {:.0}s", timeout_secs))?
+        .map_err(|_| "curl thread dropped".to_string())?;
     let exit_code = status_result.ok().and_then(|s| s.code()).unwrap_or(-1);
 
     if exit_code != 0 {