The New Orleans City Council decided yesterday that tandem floats must be connected with flexible barriers to eliminate dangerous gaps in parades.
The unanimous vote is intended to address a hazard that claimed two lives during Carnival 2020, when parade spectators were killed between floats.
During the 2020 Nyx parade, witnesses said 58 YO Geraldine Carmouche was killed when she tried to cross over the middle of a tandem float. Three days later, 58 YO Joseph Sampson reportedly fell or was pushed between the segments of a tandem float in the Endymion parade and was killed.
Both parades were halted at the site of the tragedies, and the incidents led to a ban on tandem floats for the rest of Carnival 2020.
