Girl’s death prompts parade safety review

Several Nova Scotia communities are reviewing safety measures for upcoming holiday parades after Saturday’s tragedy in Yarmouth.

MaCali Cormier, 4, died after she was run over by a float as the town’s annual Christmas Parade of Lights was drawing to a close.

Both Westville and Fall River say they are making safety changes in response, even as the RCMP say they’ve ruled out one possible factor in the Yarmouth tragedy - parked cars.

One Yarmouth eyewitness expressed concerns that parking on both sides of Saturday’s parade route may have obstructed views of children darting back and forth, but RCMP Cpl. Dal Hutchinson discounted that Tuesday.

“I can tell you ... there was no indication of parked vehicles having contributed to this tragic incident,” said Hutchinson.

In light of the tragedy, Westville deputy fire chief Tom Steele said the committee for the town’s Parade of Lights will meet Wednesday to review safety precautions ahead of this Saturday’s event.

“The situation is tragic, and all we can do is assure that we take as much measures as possible to make the parade as safe as possible,” Steele said in an interview.

Steele, who is also the parade chairman, said existing rules prohibit people from getting on and off floats, from throwing candy from floats, and require that people stay a safe distance from floats.

He said the committee is working with police to ensure there is no parking along the parade route, and will add more volunteers to ensure participants and spectators don’t walk beside the floats.

Steele said some parade participants have already decided that younger children won’t be allowed on floats.

“You are going to be seeing that more,” he said. “There’s going to be a lot of rethinking by the participants ... there could be more walking entries versus on floats.”

Westville, a small town of about 3,600 in Pictou County, also holds a large Canada Day parade that draws tens of thousands of people every year.