Police say drunken driver caused Mardi Gras crash

NEW ORLEANS — Police on Sunday identified the man who allegedly plowed into a crowd enjoying a Mardi Gras parade in New Orleans while intoxicated.

The New Orleans Police Department issued a statement identifying the man as 25-year-old Neilson Rizzuto. He’s being held at the city’s jail and being charged with first-degree negligent vehicular injuring, hit-andrun driving causing serious injury and reckless operation of a vehicle.

The accident happened Saturday during one of the busiest nights of Mardi Gras, when thousands of people throng the streets of MidCity to watch the elaborate floats and clamor to catch beads and trinkets tossed from riders.

Police say 28 people were hurt in the accident that sent three people to the hospital with moderate to serious injuries. There were no fatalities.

Police say a breath alcohol test determined that Rizzuto’s alcohol level was three times the legal limit after the he was arrested.

“We suspect that that subject was highly intoxicated,” Police Chief Michael Harrison had said on Saturday evening.

Harrison was asked by the media if terrorism was suspected. While he didn’t say “No,” he did say it looks like a case of DWI.

Twenty-one people were hospitalized after the crash with five victims taken to the trauma center in guarded condition. However, none apparently suffered life-threatening injuries, said Dr. Jeff Elder, city emergency services director.

Seven others declined to be hospitalized, he said.

The victims range in age from as young as 3 or 4 to adults in their 30s and 40s, Elder said.

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 discarded beads and plastic bags that had held trinkets littered the ground.

Saturday night’s parade was put on by the Krewe of Endymion, which is known for its long, elaborate floats and the big party it hosts at the Superdome after the parade.

One woman at the scene told The New Orleans Advocate that a silver truck whisked closely past her as she was walking through the intersection.

“I felt a rush it was so fast,” Carrie Kinsella said.

Kourtney McKinnis, 20, 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.

MATTHEW HINTON / NEW ORLEANS ADVOCATE Police work the scene where a pickup plowed into a crowd watching a Mardi Gras parade and injured multiple people in New Orleans on Saturday. Police say the suspect is being investigated for driving while intoxicated.

Neilson Rizutto, 25, was named as the suspect in the crash.