NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Relatives of a man who died under a parade float said he loved Mardi Gras and the season leading up to it — and had promised his wife that he wouldn’t run up to the floats.
Orleans Parish coroner’s spokesman Jason Melancon identified the man on Monday as Joseph Sampson, 58, of New Orleans.
Sampson’s wife, Vondra Mack, told news outlets the couple had planned to go to a party Saturday night instead of watching the Endymion parade, which is one of the biggest and glitziest of the season. But the party plans fell through, she said.
“I told him don’t run behind any floats,” she told WVUE-TV. “He said, ‘No I’m not gonna do that. … I’m gonna stay right here by you.’”
Sampson was the second person in four days killed by the second or third section of a tandem float. After the second accident, Mayor LaToya Cantrell banned tandem floats for the rest of the season, which ends Tuesday.
Police tweeted Sunday that there was an exception for floats lit by generators. However, they clarified Monday that the ban on tandem floats remained but single floats could continue to tow trailer-mounted generators.
Two parades were scheduled Monday night in New Orleans and four during the day on Fat Tuesday.
Sampson’s family has heard conflicting accounts of what happened to him, daughter-in-law Latasha Green told WWL-TV and The Times-Picayune / The New Orleans Advocate. She said one is that he slipped while reaching for a toy or other “throw”; another is that the jostling crowd inadvertently pushed him over.
“It is something we all know can happen either way (at) Mardi Gras when adults are running up for beads,” Green said. “We don’t feel it was done on purpose. It was just … an unfortunate incident.”
A cousin-in-law, Velma Hill, told WGNO-TV, “It’s just devastating. I wish … people would take more heed not getting close to the float.”
The first float death of the season happened Wednesday, when Geraldine Carmouche, 58, of New Orleans tried to cross between two parts of a tandem float and tripped over a hitch connecting the sections, witnesses told news outlets.
Both parades were stopped after the accidents, and remaining floats were sent on another route to their destinations.
Endymion’s second vice president, Darrel D’Aquin, told news outlets the group was asking the mayor and city council to form a Mardi Gras safety task force with his group and others.
Cantrell said Sunday that her administration would look into further safety measures.
Sampson’s family members said they thought entire parade routes should be barricaded, WWL-TV and The Times-Picayune / The New Orleans Advocate reported.
People have also died in float-related deaths in other states in recent years. In December, 5-year-old Ameer Frazier was hit in a parking lot where floats were unloading after a Christmas parade in Bluffton, South Carolina. In September 2018, Brycen Zerby, 8, was hit by a float in a Labor Day parade in Windsor, Colorado. Dylan Thomas, 7, fell from a Miners Jubilee Parade float in Baker City, Oregon, in July 2017, and was hit by its rear wheels.
