SAN ANTONIO – A woman who wanted to end her Fiesta Flambeau Parade night on a high note wound up ending it on a disturbing one as she captured a freak accident on her phone.
Nancy Hernandez was stuck in traffic as officers corralled floats from the Fiesta Flambeau Parade, and began recording the passing floats on her phone. She then saw a man get run over.
"I saw one of the floats kind of jump and and I was, like, 'Why did it jump?' And the float that was right behind it, he came toward my truck and I was, like, 'Why is he coming toward my truck?,'" Hernandez said.
Hernandez said she then saw other floats maneuvering around something on the road.
"The next thing you know, I realized, 'Oh, my God, there's somebody in the street,'" she said.
A man fell off of the the Fiesta float he was riding and was run over by the trailer that was carrying the float, officials said.
Hernandez said the man wasn't moving when authorities rushed to his aid and that it appeared he had suffered an injury to his arm.
Joe Arrington, a spokesman for the San Antonio Fire Department, said the man was rushed to a hospital and firefighters suspected he had a broken arm.
Hernandez said the entire sight made her heart drop.
“It is just sad to see that happen,” said Hernandez. “Everyone is having fun because this Fiesta event is just so festive and then that happens. It is just sad.”
Hernandez said she is praying for the man’s quick recovery.
According to Robbie Middleton, with Southwest Parades, the man, who had been hired as a guide for the company's float, is doing fine right now.
He said, in the 40 years that he has been doing parades across the nation, an incident such as this has never happened before.
Middleton described it as a "freak accident” and said Southwest Parades plans to look into what caused the man to fall off the float.