Mardi Gras parade crash injures 28 in New Orleans

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.

Parade goers walk by a wrecked car as New Orleans police work at the scene. (Chris Granger/AP)

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 clamour to catch beads and trinkets tossed from riders.

“We suspect that the 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.

New Orleans emergency personnel attend to injured parade watchers. (Scott Threlkeld/AP)

Twenty-one people were hospitalised after the crash with five victims in guarded condition. Seven others declined to be treatment, 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.

New Orleans emergency personnel attend to injured parade watchers. (Scott Threlkeld/AP)

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.

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.