SUV injures 12 students in Mardi Gras parade

GULF SHORES, Ala. — A sports utility vehicle plowed into a high school band at a Mardi Gras parade Tuesday morning in Gulf Shores, injuring 12 students, including four who are in critical condition.

A witness described a chaotic scene shortly after the parade began, when the driver of a white Ford SUV rolled into the Gulf Shores High School Mighty Dolphin Marching Band, causing instruments and students to slam to the ground and coming to a stop with students still pinned under the van.

Kim Ard, who was walking alongside the band, said she ran to the driver’s side window after the SUV hit about half of the band members and did not appear to be stopping.

“I got through the window and starting screaming at him,” Ard said. “‘Put it in reverse! Put it in reverse!’”

But the driver, whose name was not released but was identified by a city spokesman as a 73-yearold man from Fairhope, Ala., about 30 miles away, instead put the van in park and got out, she said. Students were still pinned beneath it.

“I think he was in shock,” she said. “He just sat there, kind of sat there.”

Ard, whose son, Garrett, plays the trombone in the band but was not injured, added, “I’ve been a nurse for 22 years now, and it’s the worst I’ve ever seen.”

The accident occurred shortly after the city’s 39th annual parade started at 10 a.m. The city spokesman, Grant Brown, said it appeared the SUV driver lost control before accelerating into the band.

All 12 students, whose ages range from 12 to 17, were taken to area hospitals. One student was later flown by air ambulance to a hospital in Mobile, Ala.

The parade was immediately canceled.

The driver stayed at the scene cooperating with the authorities, Brown said at a news conference Tuesday afternoon. Alcohol and drugs were not thought to be involved, Brown said.