Parade goers during Mardi Gras are used to looking out for flying beads and trinkets, but they usually don’t have to keep their eyes peeled for flying vehicles.
But that wasn’t the case with New Sarpy’s Johnny Marino, who also serves as the justice of the peace for District 6. Marino, who attended a Metairie parade on Feb. 15, was standing on Veterans Boulevard when he glanced up and saw a dark Nissan Pathfinder soaring through the air.
“It looked like something out of a movie,” Marino said. “All of a sudden, I just saw this vehicle spiraling in the air like a football.”
Witnesses at the scene say that another car struck the Pathfinder from the rear, which caused it to hit a curb and take flight. The Pathfinder eventually landed in the canal on its roof, and Marino sprang into action.
“Me and two other guys jumped into the canal and we were able to open up one of the doors,” Marino said. “We reached in and starting pulling the guys out.
“Somebody had to do something. They would have drowned if we hadn’t gotten them out.”
Marino said that the water in the canal was knee-deep, and since the vehicle landed on its roof, the six men inside were struggling for air. And because the canal was so steep, even when the men were brought out it was a chore to get everyone back to the road.
“Some cops came over and some other people started forming a human chain from the street to the canal,” Marino said. “As we would get a guy out, the human chain would help pull them to safety.”
Marino said that after being rescued, two of the men didn’t want to wait around for the police.
“A couple of the guys looked like they would rather be anywhere else in the world when we got them out,” he said. “They started running off and the police had to chase them.”
For Marino, that only added to the uniqueness of the experience.
“I really felt like I was in a movie because all the women were screaming when the car was in the air,” Marino said. “It was like I was at a ride at Disney World where they do a fake car crash.
“It was definitely something that you don’t expect to see when you go to a parade.”
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