New Orleans This article is more than 4 years oldNew Orleans: two people killed by Mardi Gras floats in one week
This article is more than 4 years old- Man appears to fall underneath large tandem float on Saturday
- Woman, 58, was run over and killed on Wednesday
A man was hit and killed by a Mardi Gras float in New Orleans on Saturday evening, the second such death in a week.
The individual, who was not immediately named, was killed at around 7pm after he appeared to fall underneath a large tandem float during the Krewe of Endymion parade near the city centre.
Witness video posted online suggested the man fell at a point in the parade route where there were no barricades to separate onlookers from floats, which often pass close to the roadside.
Eyewitnesses speaking to local media suggested the man jumped to catch an item thrown from the float then slipped on beads left on the floor.
On Wednesday, 58-year-old Geraldine Carmouche was run over and killed by a tandem float. Witnesses suggested Carmouche tripped on a hitch holding the two floats together and fell underneath the second trailer.
Such deaths are rare at the annual carnival event. Local reports suggested the last similar incident occurred in 2008, when a man was struck by a float after the parade ended. In 1981 a three year-old girl was killed by a rolling float.
New Orleans mayor LaToya Cantrell instructed all remaining parades to end the use of tandem floats.
“To be confronted with such tragedy a second time at the height of our carnival celebrations seems an unimaginable burden to bear,” she said in a statement.
“The city and the people of New Orleans will come together, we will grieve together, and we will persevere together. Our hearts break for those lost and for their loved ones, and our prayers and deepest sympathies are with them.”
The Mardi Gras season draws over a million visitors to New Orleans each year, having become a major part of the city’s efforts to draw tourists back after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Concerns over public safety in the city have mounted in the wake of a major building collapse in the city centre in October.
A Hard Rock Hotel construction site partially collapsed, leaving three people dead and dozens injured. The site remains an eyesore in the downtown area as officials seek a way of dismantling the building safely.
Two corpses are still trapped in the building, which is set for implosion at some point in mid-March.
Many of the larger Mardi Gras carnival krewes were forced to re-route their parades to avoid the partially collapsed building.
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