Tragedy as an 11-year-old girl dies after being crushed by a float in a Rio de Janeiro Carnival Parade

An 11-year-old girl has died after an accident involving a float in a Rio de Janeiro Carnival Parade.

An 11-year-old girl died on Friday 22, April after an accident involving a float in a Rio de Janeiro Carnival Parade. The accident took place on Wednesday night when 11-year-old Raquel Antunes da Silva ran up to a carnival float, leaving her mother’s company, and climbed on to it, getting trapped inside against a pole. This led to the girl losing her right leg and being rushed by Emergency Services to an intensive care unit at the Souza Aguilar Municipal hospital where she died two days later due to internal haemorrhaging.

After the accident, at the request of the Public Ministry, the Justice of Rio de Janeiro determined that all schools of the Access, Special and Junior groups should escort their floats to their sheds. 

According to the Prosecutor, the parade of this Wednesday violated rules that had been determined in advanced by the relevant authorities. In March of this year, the Rio MP says he sent the event organisers recommendations.

“Provide security guards for the floats to prevent children and adolescents from putting themselves at risk, especially at times of concentration and dispersion of the samba schools,” says one of the items in the document.In a statement, the Civil Police reported that investigations are ongoing. “Experts inspected the site and images from security cameras were collected and are being analyzed to clarify the fact.”

Mayor Eduardo Paes (PSD), who had not yet made a statement about the accident, published that Raquel’s death “leaves a great feeling of sadness”. “We will closely follow the police investigation that ascertains the responsibilities and we are, through our Secretariat of Assistance, giving support to the family members,” he wrote on Friday.

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