Drunk driver from Paradis charged in wreck
When Otto Candies IV found himself underneath a truck hearing an engine revving, he was dazed but thinking something had suddenly gone wrong.
“That’s when I realized I was in shock, not really processing what had happened,” Candies said. “But I knew something bad had happened. I got up, stepped back a little bit, looked at the scene and thought, “Wow. That just happened.”
Minutes earlier, Candies had been waiting on the neutral ground with friends for the Krewe of Endymion parade when he suddenly heard a crash and turned around.
“All we saw was headlights,” Candies said. “Next thing you know, I was pushed from one end of the neutral ground to the other, and then I ended up on the ground underneath the truck on top of another person. I was underneath it and, at that point, I really didn’t know what was going on yet.”
He recalled unnerving sounds from where he was pinned, suggesting the ordeal might not be over.
“I heard the engine of the truck revving,” Candies said. “It sounded like he was pressing the gas to drive away or something.”
Candies, 20, of Des Allemands was among at least 32 pedestrians struck by a truck that police say was driven by 25-year-old Neilson Rizzuto of Paradis, the man accused of driving drunk headlong into the crowd. Of this total, 21 people were taken to seven hospitals with five in critical condition.
The crash was reported at 6:42 p.m. at North Carrollton and Orleans avenues at one of New Orleans’ biggest parades.Rizzuto has been charged with two counts of first-degree negligent vehicular injuring, one count of hit-and-run driving causing serious injury and one count of reckless operation of a vehicle.
By Monday, he had an additional 22 charges (12 with vehicular negligent injury and 10 counts of first-degree vehicular negligent injuring.
Rizzuto was driving on Carrollton Avenue when he struck two vehicles, lost control and rolled over the neutral ground where Candies and his friends were standing. He struck a city dump truck and plowed into a crowd of pedestrians that included Candies.
“It was quite a bit of an adventure,” Candies said of the sight of the truck’s headlights approaching staying fixed in his mind. “I kind of remember taking some steps and then I remember hitting the ground. I just sort of stopped, looked up … my head was right at the dump truck. I turned around and saw I was under the truck.”
Witnesses reported the dump truck prevented Rizzuto from continuing further and hitting more people.
At the scene, Candies said he helped the man trapped with him to get out from under Rizzuto’s truck.
Despite having minor injuries, he was more concerned about accounting for his friends and making sure they were okay.“Fortunately, I found everyone,” he said. “A couple of them were laying on the ground with paramedics making sure they were alright.”
Others he found were hysterical and crying, but they weren’t hurt physically.
Candies said it all happened within minutes, but it felt a lot longer.
“I called my mom and kind of didn’t really tell her what exactly happened,” Candies said. “I told her I was in a wreck and I got hit by a truck and she was like ‘What?’ and I didn’t give more info. I told her, ‘You just need to come pick us up.’”
When she arrived, Candies said that’s when it hit him about what had just nearly happened. Also, as he walked to her, he realized his hat and both his shoes were missing, and backside of his pants were ripped below his right knee.
“I’ve never been more happy about seeing my mom and gave her a big hug,” he said. “I just started crying.”
It wasn’t until Candies went home and started feeling the pain from his close call with the crash that he decided to go to the hospital around 8 p.m. that night.
He was not seriously injured, but his bruises will keep him out of spring soccer practice at Spring Hill College.
Reflecting on the ordeal, particularly the miraculous escape from injury and death for him and friends, Candies concluded, “I guess someone was watching out for us that night.”
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