The Slatest

Drunk Driver Plows Into New Orleans Mardi Gras Crowd, Injures 28

A vehicle is seen crashed along the Endymion parade route during Mardi Gras in New Orleans, Louisiana on Feb. 25, 2017.

REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton  

A suspected drunken driver rammed his pickup truck into a crowd of spectators who were enjoying the Krewe of Endymion parade on Saturday night in New Orleans and injured at least 28 people. A total of 21 people were taken to area hospitals, including a kid and a cop, and five were in critical condition. Mayor Mitch Landrieu wrote on Twitter that none of the injuries were life-threatening. The driver was quickly arrested and officials said there was no evidence to suggest it could have been terrorism.

Spectators could only watch as they suddenly saw a gray pickup truck going at high speed and slamming into two vehicles and then starting to hit people. “I saw him coming and I was like, oh my God, it’s going to be a catastrophe,” a witness tells the New Orleans Advocate. “He sped up and he just went flying, hit those cars.” Others agreed the driver appeared to speed up as he got close to the spectators. “It seemed like he got pissed off because all of a sudden he slammed the gas and his back tires started and it seemed like his foot never left the gas pedal,” a witness tells the New Orleans Times Picayune. “There were bodies flying off the hood while he was still driving.”  

Law enforcement officials didn’t release information on the driver but witnesses said the young man didn’t look like he knew what he had done when he was quickly apprehended by the police. The Endymion parade, one of the largest in New Orleans, paused for about 10 minutes after the crash and then continued.