Two fifth-grade students were injured Friday morning after falling from a float during Oakman High School's homecoming parade, with one child airlifted to Children's of Alabama and the other taken to a hospital by ambulance. Both students fell from a trailer pulled by a truck on Washington Street near the end of the parade route.
Fall Happened Near Parade's End on Washington Street
According to WBMA, Walker County Schools Superintendent Dennis Willingham confirmed that one of the injured students was flown to Children's of Alabama while the other was transported by ambulance to a hospital. Fifth graders are typically 10 or 11 years old, and both victims remained conscious and communicative following the fall, per police statements reported by the station.
Police considered the incident apparently accidental, the station's report noted.
Other Alabama Parade Falls
Friday's fall is not the first time young Alabama students have been hurt tumbling from a homecoming float. In October 2024, two fifth-grade students were similarly injured falling from a homecoming parade float at Collinsville High School in Dekalb County, as reported by WAFF 48, with those students taken by ambulance to a local hospital.
Nationally, roughly 200 people die each year in the United States while riding in pickup-truck beds, with children and teenagers accounting for about half of those deaths, according to estimates cited by Steele Ritchie LLC.
Rules for Pickup-Bed Riders
Steele Ritchie says Alabama has no law against riding in a pickup bed and that federal law requires anyone under 15 to be restrained.
BigLoads' towing guidelines say trailers with a gross weight exceeding 3,000 pounds should carry independent braking systems that automatically engage upon breakaway, along with crossed safety chains beneath the hitch, according to BigLoads.
Oakman School Community
Oakman High School is part of the Walker County School District.
The current medical status of both injured fifth-graders has not been detailed beyond their transport to care, and it remains unclear whether the float carried side railings or adult supervisors at the time of the fall. Whether Walker County Schools or Oakman officials will revise parade safety protocols following the incident is also not yet known.
