The death of an 8-year-old boy at a parade in Colorado last week has brought the idea of parade safety plans back to the spotlight.
As The Denver Post reports, the boy was participating in Windsor’s annual Harvest Festival when he was hit by a float.
But it isn’t the first time something like this has happened.
An 11-year-old girl from Texas died during a 2008 Christmas parade and an 8-year-old boy in Oklahoma died during a 2013 Fourth of July parade. The children who died either fell or jumped off the float and were run over.
Those and other incidents prompted the NTSB to issue a report a few years ago that found many communities don’t conduct risk assessments and implement safety plans prior to parades.
In Colorado, requirements are mixed. In Weld County, where the latest incident happened, a safety plan is required but the City of Windsor did not respond to a request for comment.
