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Command Post Advised For Parades

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By RAY REYES, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 23, 2008

PLANT CITY - The presence of law enforcement was adequate when the Plant City Christmas Parade was marred by the death of a 9-year-old boy, but measures should be taken at future events to streamline communication between emergency responders, according to a report released by city officials on Jan. 11.

Police Chief Bill McDaniel and Fire Rescue Chief George Shiley recommended that an on-site command post be "implemented as the standard for management of all large-scale events held in Plant City."

The command center would be staffed by police, firefighters, paramedics and other emergency personnel working together to enhance safety and crowd control, the report said. One official, an incident commander, would be in charge of the post and coordinate activities. Shiley also suggested that the city's emergency operations center may be partially activated for large events.

The report was created in response to the death of Jordan "Booka" Hays, who was run over by a church float during the Christmas parade. The Inverness boy was distributing candy when he was caught under the wheels and killed Dec. 7.

The report found no fault on the number of law enforcement assigned to work the parade. Officers, commanders and supervisors were posted at every intersection along the route and a traffic control unit followed along the perimeter of the parade, the report said.

A total of 82 police officers, along with several off-duty Florida Highway Patrol troopers, were working at the parade, McDaniel said.
Paramedics were at the accident scene in three minutes, 12 seconds, and began treatment of Jordan within two minutes of their arrival, Shiley wrote. A second unit of three rescue vehicles was slowed getting to the accident just south of South Collins Street and East Laura Street because they encountered several floats at the end of the parade, Shiley said.

"The parade was in the middle of the street and there were spectators on both sides of the road," Shiley wrote. "Parade floats and participants did not or could not yield to the lights and sirens of emergency response vehicles coming up behind them."

Shiley and McDaniel made these recommendations to enhance safety and further improve the ability of paramedics to get to an accident scene at parades and other large events:

•Pre-plan emergency response routes to be used by police and fire rescue to move around the perimeter of the parade.

•Restrict parade participants from using sirens and lights similar to those used by law enforcement and fire rescue.

•Use off-duty personnel to augment on-duty staff.

•Ban any unit, float or vehicle in parades from making aggressive, abrupt or rapid movements at any point in the parade route. Demonstrations of maneuverability, horsepower, speed and agility should not be permitted by any unit, including law enforcement motorcycles, go-karts, modified automobiles and race cars.

Commissioners at their Jan. 14 meeting voted unanimously to implement three measures mentioned in the report: a ban on the distribution of candy and beads at parades; creating a task force that would further refine parade safety; and the consideration of buying or renting pedestrian barricades to be placed along parade routes.

The report found that Jordan was too young to be allowed to walk next to a parade unit and cited the design of the float - which had wheels that protruded from the sides of the trailer - as a factor in his death. Jordan was killed when he tried to get more candy from a box ahead of the wheels on the Greater Heights Family Worship Center float, officials said.

The crowd was not a factor in the boy's death, which was ruled accidental, McDaniel said.

Reporter Ray Reyes can be reached at (813) 865-4433 or rreyes@tampatrib.com.

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