Two Are Injured As Parade Balloon Fells Street Light

A giant, multicolored balloon brought down part of streetlight yesterday morning during the annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, injuring two sisters who were taken to the hospital.At about 11:30 a.m., near the end of the parade route, a wire on an M&M sponsored float got stuck on top of street lamp and tore off its globe shaped head.Mayor Bloomberg, who arrived at the scene about an hour after the incident, said the sisters, ages 11 and 26, were taken to Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan and treated for relatively minor injuries.He said the one was treated and released with an abrasion, and the other, who is disabled, received six stitches and was being held for observation. Later in the day, an administrator at the hospital, Peter Schectman, said the older sister would probably be released as well.The incident harkened back to the 1997 Macy’s parade, when a “Cat in the Hat” balloon crashed into a metal pole on 72nd Street and Central Park West. The falling debris in that incident injured four people – including one woman who suffered permanent brain damage. The most seriously injured in the group, Kathleen Caronna, settled a $395 million lawsuit against Macy’s and the city.After that incident, the city and Macy’s instituted a number of regulations regarding the size of balloons, created weather restrictions, and established training guidelines for float handlers.Mr. Bloomberg said the wind speed at the time of yesterday’s incident was 15 miles an hour at the intersections and 5 miles an hour in the middle of the blocks, where the tall skyscrapers act like shields. Both are below the city’s cutoff of 23 miles an hour.Forecasters had said there would be heavy wind and rain for the parade – conditions that could have grounded the 27 floats, which included SpongeBob SquarePants, Dora the Explorer, and a host of classic cartoon characters like Snoopy.The mayor, who toured the accident scene with Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly and the commissioner of the Department of Transportation, Iris Weinshall, said initial reports suggested a gust of wind pushed the M&M float eastward and the crew of handlers holding the wires pulled in the other direction.“It looks like there was a gust of wind that was taking the balloon over to the east side of the street towards the ABC building,” Mr. Bloomberg told reporters in Times Square, about a half a block from where the incident occurred.” The handlers corrected for that by pulling the balloon back toward the west side of the street and perhaps overcorrected – we don’t know.”He said the city would look into whether the fixture was “properly secured” and whether any procedures need to be changed.“We have, we believe, a lot of still photos and perhaps even a video of what happened, and that will be useful in the investigation we’ll conduct to find out exactly what happened,” Mr. Bloomberg said.The executive producer of the parade for Macy’s, Robin Hall, told reporters that there were 48 handlers on the float and 12 flight handlers on the M&M balloon. Mr. Hall said only two of the members of the crew appeared to be handling a balloon in the parade for the first time, but that more information would be gathered as part of the investigation.Mr. Bloomberg, who was sporting a brown leather jacket, said he was thankful the incident was not more serious. He said it was “sad” and “unfortunate,” but that New Yorkers should “thank God it was nothing more serious than this.”

Two Are Injured As Parade Balloon Fells Street Light

Two Are Injured As Parade Balloon Fells Street Light

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