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A MAN WAS struck and killed by a Mardi Gras float during a night street parade in New Orleans, 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 float was rolling, New Orleans police said. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Remaining floats that followed, along with marching groups, were diverted from the accident scene on Canal Street, a wide route popular with parade viewers in the Mississippi River port city.
The float was cordoned off by police on horseback and on foot.
The fatality came as New Orleans was still mourning the death of a 58-year-old woman who – witnesses said – was run over by a parade float on Wednesday night.
Mayor LaToya Cantrell said that the south Louisiana 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. The city and the people of New Orleans will come together, we will grieve together, and we will persevere together,” Ms 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.”
Wednesday’s fatality had occurred during the parade of the Mystic Krewe of Nyx, an all-female carnival group. Witnesses said the woman, New Orleans native Geraldine Carmouche, had apparently tried to cross between two parts of a tandem float and tripped over a hitch connecting the sections.
Tandem floats are multiple floats connected together and pulled by one tractor. It was not immediately clear if a tandem float was involved in last night’s fatality, but city agency NOLA Ready said that tandem floats would not be allowed for the few days remaining in the 2020 festival season.
The carnival season is nearing its traditional all-out Fat Tuesday celebration, the climax of a week or more of parades and partying.
The Krewe of Bacchus will split its tandem floats for its Bacchus Sunday evening parade, the group said in a statement. A statement from the Krewe of Orpheus said it would follow the city’s safety recommendations for its parade on Monday.
The deaths also come just a year after a car sped into a bicycle lane near a parade route, hitting nine people and killing two cyclists not far from where the Krewe of Endymion formation had just passed. A man identified as the driver was subsequently charged with two counts of vehicular homicide.
Before this year, the most recent carnival float-related fatality in Louisiana happened in 2009, when a 23-year-old rider fell from a float and in front of its wheels in Carencro, about 120 miles west of New Orleans.
In 2008, a rider getting off a three-part float after the Krewe of Endymion parade in New Orleans was killed when the float lurched forward and the third section ran over him, police said.
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Apple Green. Keep the extortionate prices down and make some decent filled rolls unlike Topaz and you won’t go far wrong with the public.
Too late.
Topaz deli and coffee is awful.
Most Apple greens are nice and as I driver I appreciate their clean customer toilets the most!
You can spent €100 on diesel in Topaz to be told “sorry there’s no loo. Have some of our watery coffee”
Support local. Buy local.
I refuse to buy any petrol that wasn’t pulled from the ground on these very isles! I’ve been stranded on quite a few occasions and my car hasn’t moved since it ran out of fuel the day I bought it but I’m not changing my ways!
Hope the sub contractors get paid this time unlike what happened at the Lusk service station when it was built.
Not Applegreens fault, they paid the principal contractor who in turn shirt changed the sub contractors.
I should stand to be corrected on that bit that’s what I can recall from memory.
Applegreen is a great spot. Take kids to one in Castlrbellingham. Inside play area is great. Long haul lorry driver appreciate it, a safe place to pull in for the night grab a shower etc.
All good.
The thing you have to remember before you spout the “Buy Irish / Support Irish Jobs” nonsense, is that there are far more people living outside Ireland who consider themselves Irish than there are living on this island.
Therefore when you buy “foreign”, there’s a good chance that you’re supporting somebody who had to emigrate, or the company that game them a job when they had to emigrate, or their descendants. .
Neal,
Correct also what would happen to the economy if trading partners decided to stop buying Irish and to “buy local” think we’d be in a bit of a mess. It’s a 2edged sword
well done Neal, this has to be the stupidest thing I have ever read on the journal. regarding those who “had” to emigrate surely creating jobs in Ireland would enable them to come home.
What about all the family run garages that they will close down, like tesco, lidl and aldi, Irish money making British and German filthy rich companies richer and Irish stores to suffer and close.
People have voted with their feet and / or their level of disposable income.
I’m prob worse than anyone when it comes to aldi or apple green ye gotta love a deal, but that’s because they can buy in such big bulk. The smaller business can’t compete with that, I don’t own a store or know anyone who does, I just think it’s wrong because they open so many stores it doesn’t mean the demand for petrol will be greater it means some small business will eventually close and another Irish family will lose jobs.
Ben applegreen dont really use their economy of scale to keep fuel prices down. I generally find they are the same as any other garage around them price wise.
They sell bad fuel . Low mileage
Anything on where the 6 are?
Just to point out Applegreen is a 100 percent owned and run Irish company that now also branched to the UK and the US. A company that is very modest about their success.
Where are all the shinners complaining about these jobs? Actually where have the shinner bots gone since the elections. It is like the tap has been turned off. And criticism from Gerry and all of the Government has quietened a lot too. Seems they are preparing for Government by pretending they always supported austerity.
Because Applegreen don’t sell dodgy Shinner diesel.
Apple green come in open up company owned sites which eliminate small family businesses.
They use their economies of scale to create price wars and eventually the family owned stores die out. E.g Ennis
These news stories shouldn’t get praise for opening new stores as they will force close others.
You can’t create extra demand for Fuel
There is no service station off the motorway from Dublin to Waterford. (among other long stretches) What they are offering is a product to service motor way traffic not set up in the middle of your town. They are badly needed unless you want children to go to the toilet on the side of the road .
More profit in Lucoazade than petrol
have your say