Monday, September 20, 1999

Sirens and cries replace laughter

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The Cincinnati Enquirer

Police close down the celebration. (Jeff Swinger photo) | ZOOM |

        Oktoberfest-Zinzinnati 1999 was supposed to close with the sound of laughter.

        Sunday night, the event that celebrates Cincinnati's German soul ended with the wail of sirens. And the cries of the injured.

        Forty minutes before the festival's scheduled 9 p.m. closing time, the driver of a red Chevrolet roared down Main Street and smashed into the heart of the crowd at Fifth and Main.

        Yellow crime scene tape blocked the Main Street site where a few hours before, happy crowds spilled from a beer tent to do the chicken dance.

        After the car drove through the crowd, that same scene was a frightful sight. Smashed chairs and cups and souvenirs were strewn from gutter to gutter. Costumed dancers and band members tended to the injured dotting the street. Paramedics worked on a man who had been thrown against a utility pole.

        Bags of ice, piled on the sidewalk to cool soft drinks, were being ripped open. Police officers, firefighters and Good Samaritans grabbed the ice and pressed it against injured arms and legs of people sprawled on the asphalt.

        Brandon Gregg of Falmouth was standing by the beer tent with his friend, Jason Doyle of Butler, Ky., when the car barreled past them.

        “We heard the tires squealing and saw that car coming down on us,” Mr. Gregg said.

        “We just ran for our lives,” Mr. Doyle said. “People knocked over chairs, threw things out of their way — their cups of beer included. We got soaked with beer.”

        “But we were lucky,” Mr. Gregg added. “Other people got soaked with blood.”

        Larry Smith, an Oktoberfest volunteer, was on his final rounds of supplying souvenir stands with T-shirts. He was driving a golf cart loaded with boxes along Main Street's sidewalk between Fourth and Fifth Streets, headed for the souvenir stand across from the beer tent. People were lined up making last-minute purchases.

        Suddenly there were bodies flying.

        “I heard the car,” Mr. Smith said. “Then, I instantly saw everybody flying out of its way. The car went by me with bodies on the hood. I thought, this can't be.”

        An hour after the accident, a stunned Mr. Smith still sat in his golf cart.

        “I keep thinking about that church in Fort Worth where the guy went in and shot those people,” he said.

        “You're not safe anywhere anymore.”

        Not in church, not in school. We never expected danger in these places.

        And now, to that list must be added: Oktoberfest-Zinzinnati 1999.

       

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