Two people killed by Mardi Gras parade floats in the past week

The deaths of two parade-goers at Mardi Gras in New Orleans cast a pall over the raucous festivities and spurred the city to demand an 11th-hour change to tandem floats — multiple parade floats pulled by a single tractor.

Each float must be driven by its own tractor for the remainder of the 2020 Carnival season, officials announced after a man, whose name has not been released by police, was struck and killed by a tandem float Saturday night.

The news of his death came just days after Geraldine Carmouche, 58, was crushed by a tandem float. The New Orleans resident was trying to cross to the other side of the parade on Wednesday when she tripped over the hitch connecting two floats, witnesses told a local news station.

Both deaths occurred amid the festivities and shocked witnesses. The parades both nights were canceled after the deaths.

Local news reporter Jonah M. Gilmore, who was at the scene of Saturday’s death, tweeted a video of the flashing, gaudy float surrounded by first responders and a concerned crowd. Sirens echoed in the distance.

“I can’t wrap my head around witnessing this. Like man, the screams, seeing CPR performed on his body and seeing them finally drape that sheet,” Gilmore tweeted.

Cantrell said the city would continue enforcing standards regarding where crowds can stand.

The most recent fatality related to a single float was in 2009, when a 23-year-old rider fell from a float and was run over by it in a suburb of Lafayette, Louisiana.