A man who allegedly plowed into a crowd enjoying the Krewe of Endymion parade on Saturday in the Mid-City section of New Orleans is being investigated for driving while intoxicated, police said.
The accident came during one of the busiest nights of Mardi Gras when thousands of people throng the streets of Mid-City to watch the elaborate floats and clamor to catch beads and trinkets tossed from riders.
"We suspect that that subject was highly intoxicated," Police Chief Michael Harrison said on Saturday evening.
Harrison was asked twice by the media if terrorism was suspected. While he didn’t say "No" he did say it looks like a case of DWI.
Twenty-one people were hospitalized after the crash with five victims in guarded condition. Seven others declined to be hospitalized, city Emergency Services Director, Dr. Jeff Elder said.
The victims range in age from as young as 3 or 4-years-old to adults in their 30s and 40s, said Elder.
Among the injured was one New Orleans police officer. Harrison said the officer, who was on duty, was undergoing tests to determine the extent of her injuries. She was in "good spirits," he said.
As police and city officials assessed the accident scene, people streamed home as plastic bags that used to hold trinkets and discarded beads littered the ground.
The accident came during one of the busiest nights of Mardi Gras when thousands of people throng the streets of Mid-City to watch the elaborate floats and clamor to catch beads and trinkets tossed from riders. As police and city officials were assessing the accident scene, people were streaming home as plastic bags that used to hold trinkets and discarded beads littered the ground. The area where the accident occurred was cordoned off with police barricades.
One woman at the scene told The New Orleans Advocate that a silver truck whisked by her just feet away as she was walking through the intersection.
Mardi Gras crash Gerald Herbert / AP
Police talk to a man sitting in a car that was struck by a pickup truck, that slammed into a crowd and other vehicles, causing multiple injuries, during the Krewe of Endymion parade in New Orleans, Saturday, Feb. 25, 2017.
Police talk to a man sitting in a car that was struck by a pickup truck, that slammed into a crowd and other vehicles, causing multiple injuries, during the Krewe of Endymion parade in New Orleans, Saturday, Feb. 25, 2017.
(Gerald Herbert / AP)
Carrie Kinsella said, "I felt a rush it was so fast."
Twenty-year-old Kourtney McKinnis told the Advocate that the driver of the truck seemed almost unaware of what he had just done.
"He was just kind of out of it," she said.
Associated Press writer Kevin McGill contributed to this story.
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