Balloon injures Macy's parade spectators

[dugie6551]

ROFL !!!!

Only in America and reported first by Canadian press !!!

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http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/20...321641-ap.html

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NEW YORK (AP) — A giant balloon at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade snagged a street light near Times Square and caused part of it to fall into the crowd, injuring two people, according to police and eyewitness accounts.

The accident happened near the end of the parade when the balloon’s tethers became entangled on the head of the street lamp, about 75 centimetres in diameter, and knocked it off.

The 26-year-old woman and 11-year-old girl were apparently hurt by the debris. They were in stable condition at the Bellevue Hospital emergency room, said hospital administrator Peter Schectman. The nature of their injuries was not immediately known.

“It happened so fast,” said parade spectator Karim Simmons, of Queens. “I said, ‘Oh, my God!’ It dropped like a rock.”

The circumstances were an echo of a 1997 accident, when two people were seriously injured when 72 km/h winds forced a Cat in the Hat balloon into a metal pole on Central Park West.

Officials then set guidelines that would limit the use of balloons if wind threatened to be too strong.

Parade organizers were given the go-ahead to use the balloons this year, but ordered them tethered on shorter lines because of some moderate breezes at the parade’s start.


It was not immediately clear if wind played a factor in this year’s accident, which involved the M&Ms balloon.

The Macy’s parade started in 1924 and has been an annual tradition, cancelled only in the Second World War years of 1942 to 1944.

The balloons, including Nickelodeon’s Dora the Explorer, the parade’s first Latina balloon character, shared top billing with 10 marching bands, 27 floats and performers such as LeAnn Rimes, Aaron Neville and Kristin Chenoweth.

Among those watching was Ron Kahn, 85, who took pictures while perching on a ladder.

“This is wonderful. It’s part of New York,” Kahn said.

Sayra Hernandez watched from a side street with her son, Lucas, 4, sitting on her shoulders.

“It seems better on TV, maybe more glamorous, not this hectic,” said Hernandez, 30, of Manhattan. “But the smile on my kid’s face is priceless.”