Rio sambas on after float crash hurts 20 at Carnival
Organizers said 20 people were hurt and eight were taken to hospital, three of them with serious injuries. One woman had two legs broken and was still in the hospital. An initial investigation said the float had a mechanical problem, the organizers said.
The accident did not stop the all night parade by six of the city’s elite samba schools that spend millions each year to compete by parading down a 765-yard avenue with thousands of dancers driven by powerful drum sections.
The Carnival festivities provide Brazilians with a welcome escape from the reality of a two-year re- cession, record unemployment, a sprawling political corruption scandal and mounting crime in a city that hosted the Olympics last August.
Behind the joyful laughter, the drinking and the dancing, the grim reality of political crisis remained present.
At the Sargento Pimenta party in Rio’s Flamengo district, Mario Marcio, dressed in prison stripes said his costume represented “the politicians who are sticking their hands in our money.”
Fernanda Brito, dressed as a police officer, said she was there to arrest corrupt politicians “and show that it is possible to improve things in Brazil.”
The government of President Michel Temer, who replaced impeached leftist Dilma Rousseff last year vowing to clean up government and restore fiscal discipline, faced corruption allegations that are expected to rock Brazil after Carnival.
A group of young women attending the Sargento party wore their slogan painted on their arms: “Out with Temer.”
“We have to take advantage of this visibility to show the causes we support and truly need,” Julia Saber said.