Tourism and Mardi Gras: The New Orleans Carnival is one of the biggest tourist events in the Louisiana city in the United States. Tonight for some the New Orleans Mardi Gras turned into a nightmare when at least 28 people have been injured. According to a witness talking to local media, bodies were flying off the hood where the truck plowed into Endymion crowd.
A truck ran into tourists partying on the street during the parade in New Orleans.
The crash happened at the corner of Orleans and N. Carrollton avenues at around 6.45pm during the Endymion Parade.
NOPD Superintendent Michael Harrison said there is no evidence to suspect this is terrorism and that the 26-year-old driver appeared ‘highly intoxicated’.
Victims’ ages range from age three to their early forties, according to the New Orleans Advocate. In total, 21 were taken to seven different hospitals throughout the city. Five are in critical condition and are being treated at trauma centers. Seven declined treatment.
A witness saw as many as seven people on the ground, but they were moving. He saw police open the truck’s door, but he said they did not pull the driver then. He did not see the driver, he said, but he said his actions seemed like those of “a really pissed-off person in a truck that obviously didn’t care about other people’s lives.”
The drunk driver was eventually arrested.
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