2nd person killed by float in raucus Mardi Gras parade

NEW ORLEANS >> A man was struck and killed by a Mardi Gras float during a raucous Saturday night street parade in New Orleans, becoming the second person in days killed along a parade route during this year’s Carnival season, authorities said.

The man was fatally injured just before 7 p.m. as the popular Krewe of Endymion was rolling, New Orleans police said in a statement. He was pronounced dead at the scene, and the Orleans Parish Coroner’s Office was to release his name and cause of death after completing an autopsy and notifying his family.

The remainder of Endymion’s parade was scrapped Saturday evening. Police said 13 floats had already gone ahead when the accident occurred with the 14th float in the formation. Remaining floats that followed, along with marching groups, were diverted from the accident scene on Canal Street, a wide route popular with parade viewers in the Mississippi River port city.

New Orleans police said first responders swiftly converged on the site, tweeting out calls for crowds to avoid the area.

The float, with its gaudy lights still twinkling, was cordoned off by police on horseback and on foot.

All around, streets were strewn with tossed bead necklaces and trinkets thrown from the floats, along with other party debris. A somber mood had taken hold of members of the parade group, TV stations reported.

The fatality came as New Orleans was still mourning the death of a 58-year-old woman who — witnesses said — was run over by a parade float Wednesday night.

Wednesday’s fatality had occurred during the parade of the Mystic Krewe of Nyx, an all-female Carnival group.

Witnesses said the woman, New Orleans native Geraldine Carmouche, had apparently tried to cross between two parts of a tandem float and tripped over a hitch connecting the sections.