Breaking: Car plows into crowd at Mardi Gras parade in Gulf Shores, Ala.; injuries reported. https://t.co/jRzZjCLehc pic.twitter.com/LHRLU329Mc
— Fox News (@FoxNews) February 28, 2017
An SUV driver plowed into a high school marching band at a Mardi Gras Day parade in Alabama on Tuesday, injuring at least a dozen people – four of them critically, ABC news reported.
The 73-year-rold motorist, whose name was not immediately released, accidentally pressed down on the gas pedal after his foot slipped off the brake pedal, causing the vehicle to careen into the Gulf Shores High School Marching Band, witness told ABC affiliate WPMI.
The Gulf Shores Police Department released details about the accident, stating that the driver was not intoxicated on drugs or alcohol and that his actions were not intentional.
“At 10 a.m. this morning a local Gulf Shores youth band in a Mardi Gras parade was entering highway 59 when a vehicle behind them lurched forward and injured 11 members of the band,” spokesperson for the Gulf Shores Police Department, Grant Brown, told reporters during a press conference.
“The vehicle behind the band was part of the parade and it is unknown at this time why the vehicle lurched forward. All 11 children were transported to a local hospital. The children are ‘young teenagers,’” Brown added.
Nine of the victims were rushed to South Baldwin Medical Center in Foley, Alabama. Two were taken to Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola, Florida and one more was brought to Baptist Hospital, also in Pensacola.
A similar incident occurred during Saturday’s Mardi Gras celebration in New Orleans.
In that accident, Neilson Rizzuto, 25, rammed his pick-up truck into 28 people while completely wasted on alcohol, cops said.
No one was killed, but many of the victims, ranging in age from 3 to 40, suffered critical injuries.
Rizzuto was charged with negligent vehicular injuring, hit-and-run driving and reckless operation of a vehicle.
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