Bratwurst Days Parade Cancelled Due to High-speed Chase
I’ve never had a parade, with this much drama, in my whole life!
The first weekend in August, is always Brat Days. It’s a 4-day festival with bands, a flea market, stuff for kids and of course, bratwurst in abundance. It’s a fund-raiser for the Kiwanis Club (I think). We hardly ever go buy the over-priced brats, but we always go to the parade.
Today, however, we only got a partial parade and thankfully, only a few people got hurt. As we are sitting there, a car FLIES by, at a freeway speed, or faster, through the residential neighborhood, where the parade was happening. Fortunately, when he went past us, it’s a divided road and the parade participants were on the other side. At the bottom of the hill, though, he hit a median and did hit some people. Apparently, injuries were non-life-threatening, as far as I know. It could have been FAR worse.
Eventually, this idiot was followed by quite a few cop cars and sheriff’s vehicles. I heard from another by-stander that the high speed chase started in Kohler, about 3 miles west of us and continuted into the middle of Sheboygan, where families lined the streets for the Brat parade.
My hubby, who works as a news photographer, started taking pictures and eventually walked down to the intersection where it ended. He’s now at work processing pictures for the newspaper and the website.
I came downstairs to his work cellphone beeping and it was the managing editor’s voicemail about the incident, but he’s out of town and doesn’t know that Gary’s all on top of it already.
Oh yeah, needless to say, the rest of the parade was canceled. 
At least we got to see the Budweiser Clydesdales, and the dalmatian, though! They were about ready to make the turn, to the road that goes to Kiwanis Park, when the yokel FLEW past us. I’m glad they were high enough up, on their wagon, to see it coming, and kept the horses in place, on the road, so the horses didn’t get hurt.
What I want to know, is how the idiot got through the barricades that were up, to block the road, for the parade. I really have no clue. Someone must have moved them, because they knew it was coming.
I felt bad for the little kids across the street, who had bags for the candy that is always thrown. They had to go home, empty-handed. I felt bad for me, because I had to carry Gary’s heavy chair home.
For more info later:
http://www.sheboyganpress.com
I guess I’m involved too, since I’m fielding phone calls, about where Gary is, etc.
Tags: 8-2-2008, Brat Days, Bratwurst Days, cancelled, high-speed chase, injuries, Kohler, police, Sheboygan, sheriff
August 2nd, 2008 at 11:43 am
We drove passed the barricade you are referring to on here, on our way home after the canceled parade, and it was obvious that he had just slammed right through it and broke it (pretty easy to do at that speed, I suppose!). We saw a cop taking pictures of the scene (after rearranging the barricades….).
We were high up on the hill, near the park and festival and we heard the huge scream from the crowd. Pretty awful!
August 2nd, 2008 at 1:42 pm
OMG how awful. I am so glad no one was seriously hurt. I am assuming the driver has been rightfully arrested.
August 2nd, 2008 at 2:41 pm
Oh my! That’s a bit more excitement than a sweet town like Sheboygan needs to EVER have! I’ll have to have a look at the coverage on the newspaper website!
Glad you were safe! Kate left for Michigan at 5am today and was safely there by noon. The house is SO quiet… although we still have Roxy who will travel north with us next Friday. In Michigan it was 71 at noon… here in St. Charles it was 94! (I know you despise heat, so I put that tidbit in there! )
August 13th, 2008 at 5:23 pm
Sounds like quite a bit of excitement. It’s too bad that people were injured. Hopefully the guy was caught and will have to answer for his reckless driving.
Thanks for the comment on the hand towels. You should try the CotLin (Knit Picks). It’s so much cheaper than Euroflax and is really soft.