“People were really distraught and some people were crying,” said Rolli, who explained that the crash happened in an area where the floats were lining up, so there weren’t as many paradegoers. In the confusion, it was unclear what happened. Rolli was on the other side of the float and didn’t witness the crash, but jumped off immediately and ran to the victims. The driver continued across all lanes of traffic, ultimately crashing into a fence on the other side of the street, police said. Trantalis said the driver of a pickup truck suddenly accelerated when he was told he was next in the parade, crashing into the victims. Rolli was on the float in front of the chorus truck along with Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis and other city officials at a staging area where the floats were being readied. To my knowledge, this was not an attack on the LGBTQ community,” President Justin Knight said in a statement Sunday, calling it “an unfortunate accident.” “Our fellow Chorus members were those injured and the driver is also a part of the Chorus family.
The driver and the victims were a part of the Fort Lauderdale Gay Men’s Chorus family, a small 25-member group of mostly older men.
“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 in a phone interview.
