Holiday Parade safety to be enhanced with barricades, request for parents’ help

Holiday Parade

Sunday, Dec. 7

3 p.m.

Mountain Brook Village

Grand Marshals: MBHS Volleyball and Girls Cross Country Teams

When kids hear “parade,” they think “fun.” When the Mountain Brook Police Department thinks “parade,” they think “safety.”

To ensure kids’ fun isn’t ruined with injury during the Holiday Parade on Dec. 7, the police department is stepping up safety regulations, particularly for children.

Cook said that historically people on floats have thrown candy that lands in the roadway instead of the crowd, and so children run into the roadway to get it and don’t look out for floats in the process.

The city has tried various methods including enlisting volunteers to hang ropes along the route to regulate safety in the past that have not worked well. This year, however, was the exception.

During the Mystics Parade in October, the Public Works Department put out metal barricades along the parade route to restrict people from getting into the roadway. 

“Where they were solid, they were mostly effective, although some adults would put a small child over the barricade to go get candy,” Police Chief Ted Cook said. “Now we have a system for putting them out and getting them picked up after the route, so we’ll probably be lining as much of the parade route in the future for parades.” 

For the upcoming Christmas Parade, they plan to line both sides of the route with barricades and monitor to make sure people stay behind them.

Cook also said his department along with the fire department are also working to communicate the city’s regulations for parades as outlined in the parade permit application. These are:

Candy, footballs, beads, and other items should not be thrown from any floats or vehicles in the parade.  Likewise, similar items should not be thrown from parade-goers toward floats and participants along the parade route.  These give away items may be handed to parade-goers by participants walking along the edge of the parade route.

Drivers of floats and other vehicles within the parade must be properly licensed and should be mature drivers.

All floats and vehicles in the parade must be so designed that drivers have an adequate line of vision to properly drive and maintain safe distances.

Floats or parade participants should not turn out of the designated parade route without police approval or direction.

Safety regulations don’t end with city involvement though. Cook said parents still play an important role. 

“We need parents to watch the children as much as possible because with any parade float there are parts of it that are difficult for the driver to see if someone comes running in from the side,” Cook said. “Candy is not a worth a single child getting injured.”

Fire Chief Robert Ezekiel had a similar request.

“We ask that parents please keep close watch on your young children,” Ezekiel said. “It has been noted that older children sometimes through the excitement of the parade bump in to younger children and they fall in to harms way.”