Mardi Gras Again Marred by Death

Man run over by float becomes 2nd fatality within days
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Feb 23, 2020 8:17 AM CST
Death Visits Mardi Gras a 2nd Time
Parade participants stay on their float as police officers work the scene where a man was reportedly hit and killed by a float of the Krewe of Endymion parade in the runup to Mardi Gras in New Orleans, Saturday, Feb. 22, 2020.   (Max Becherer/The Advocate via AP)

A man was struck and killed by a Mardi Gras float during a raucous Saturday night street parade in New Orleans, reports the AP, becoming the second person in days killed along a parade route during this year's Carnival season, authorities said. The man was fatally injured just before 7pm as the popular Krewe of Endymion was rolling, New Orleans police said in a statement. He was pronounced dead at the scene, and the Orleans Parish Coroner's Office was to release his name and cause of death after completing an autopsy and notifying his family. The remainder of Endymion's parade was scrapped Saturday evening. Police said 13 floats had already gone ahead when the accident occurred with the 14th float in the formation. Remaining floats that followed, along with marching groups, were diverted from the accident scene on Canal Street.

The fatality came as New Orleans was still mourning the death of a 58-year-old woman who was run over by a parade float Wednesday night. Mayor LaToya Cantrell said Saturday night that the city was grieving. “To be confronted with such tragedy a second time at the height of our Carnival celebrations seems an unimaginable burden to bear," Cantrell said in a statement. “Our hearts break for those lost and for their loved ones, and our prayers and deepest sympathies are with them." Both fatalities involved tandem floats—multiple floats connected together and pulled by one tractor—and the Times-Picayune reports that the city put an immediate ban on such floats. (More Mardi Gras stories.)

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