Pride crash driver and victims were part of Florida men’s chorus, the organization’s president says
A horrific crash that killed a member of Florida men’s choral group and seriously injured another at a Pride parade was not a hate crime, authorities said Sunday.
Wilton Manors official Paul Rolli and Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis said the Saturday truck wreck was an accident and not an attack against the LGBTQ community.
“The early investigation now indicates it looks like it was a tragic accident, but nobody’s saying finally what it is,” Rolli told The Associated Press.
Rolli was on a float in front of the chorus truck along with Trantalis and other city officials at the staging area when the pickup truck driver suddenly accelerated, crashing into the victims. The driver continued across all lanes of traffic, ultimately smashing into a fence on the other side of the street, police said.
The driver as well as the victims were part of the Fort Lauderdale Gay Men’s Chorus, president Justin Knight said. The 77-year-old driver was taken into custody, but police said no charges were filed. The investigation was continuing.
The Fort Lauderdale Gay Men’s Chorus is a small 25-member group of mostly older men. Wilton Manors is about 3 miles north of Fort Lauderdale.
“Our fellow chorus members were those injured and the driver is also a part of the chorus family,” Knight said, calling it an “unfortunate accident,” adding that “to my knowledge, this was not an attack on the LGBTQ community.”
Trantalis, the city’s first openly gay mayor, initially reported the crash targeted gay participants, news local station WPLG reported.
Trantalis reversed his opinion after the probe revealed the truck driver had medical issues that prevented him from walking at the event, Fort Lauderdale police told AP.
“It terrorized me and all around me ... I feared it could be intentional based on what I saw from mere feet away,” Trantalis said in a Twitter statement Sunday. “As the facts continue to be pieced together, a picture is emerging of an accident in which a truck careened out of control.”
Officials expect the victim injured in the crash to recover.
The crash scene was chaotic.
“People were really distraught and some people were crying,” Rolli told AP, explaining that the accident happened in an area with only scattered spectators. “I was getting phone calls from people I knew at the other end waiting for the parade saying, ‘Is this true? Is that true, do we have anything to worry about?’ You don’t know at that point.”
With News Wire Services
