Car­ni­val cel­e­bra­tions in San Fer­nan­do were marred yes­ter­day af­ter a mu­sic truck crushed a 74-year-old rev­eller to death on Cipero Street.

Sel­wyn Lit­tle, a pen­sion­er, was hold­ing a ban­ner for Jam­merz In­ter­na­tion­al, a sailor band, in front of the truck around 4.10 pm when the brakes failed as the ve­hi­cle came down an in­cline.

The truck struck him and then rolled over him.

Po­lice said Lit­tle lived in Mon Re­pos. 

Po­lice of­fi­cers cor­doned off the area, and oth­er bands and San Fer­nan­do Car­ni­val stake­hold­ers had to get per­mis­sion from of­fi­cers to seek al­ter­na­tive routes to get to the judg­ing point in front of the South­ern Acad­e­my for Per­form­ing Arts along the Rien­zi Kir­ton High­way.

At least one band, Fire­works Car­ni­val, which was wait­ing to en­ter on­to Cipero Street was al­lowed to turn around and pass through Prince of Wales Street which con­nects low­er down Cipero Street.

“This is very sad, a re­al trag­ic way to lose your life. It is noth­ing we ex­pect­ed. This morn­ing I did not get any re­ports of any in­ci­dents,” said San Fer­nan­do May­or Robert Par­ris.

Par­ris said Lit­tle was well known in San Fer­nan­do, es­pe­cial­ly around Car­ni­val time, as he was con­sid­ered an icon in the south­ern city and was al­so part of the Joey Lewis band.

While the ac­ci­dent caused a de­lay in the move­ment of the bands, Par­ris said, “We would have to con­tin­ue with the Car­ni­val be­cause per­sons would have pre­pared ... but they nev­er pre­pared for a tragedy like this.”

Par­ris said he con­tact­ed Act­ing Prime Min­is­ter Stu­art Young to let him know what hap­pened.

Short­ly af­ter the in­ci­dent, mem­bers of Jam­merz In­ter­na­tion­al said they were un­cer­tain if they would be on the road Car­ni­val Tues­day (to­day) af­ter Lit­tle’s trag­ic death.

As­sis­tant Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Wayne Mys­tar in charge of the South­ern and South West­ern Di­vi­sions said the dri­ver is as­sist­ing po­lice with their in­ves­ti­ga­tions. He said the dri­ver in­di­cat­ed that the brakes on the truck didn’t work when he was go­ing down the in­cline.

He said the truck met all the re­quire­ments and would have been giv­en a pass to be on the road for Car­ni­val.

How­ev­er, he said the truck had been im­pound­ed and Li­cens­ing of­fi­cers would be con­duct­ing fur­ther checks to de­ter­mine what went wrong.

He added, “We are urg­ing mas­quer­aders, band mem­bers, the or­gan­is­ers of those trucks to en­sure that those safe­ty pro­to­cols are main­tained.”

Sev­er­al rev­ellers and spec­ta­tors gath­ered at the scene and ex­pressed shock and sad­ness over the in­ci­dent.

Eye­wit­ness Tere­sa Fabi­an said, “I was sit­ting by the po­lice booth and I saw the mu­sic truck go­ing down Cipero Street and Lit­tle was hold­ing the ban­ner in front. He and an­oth­er one. They said the brakes cut and the truck just passed over him. He was just gasp­ing on the ground and he died right there.”

One vis­i­tor from Cana­da was up­set by the in­ci­dent, “This is non­sense. I saw him walk­ing with the ban­ner just a few min­utes ago and to hear this hap­pened. This is some bull.”

Al­though Lit­tle’s body was re­moved just af­ter 5 pm, up to 6 pm no Car­ni­val band had passed along Cipero Street. Six­teen bands were reg­is­tered with the San Fer­nan­do Car­ni­val Com­mit­tee to par­tic­i­pate in the Pa­rade of Bands on Mon­day and Tues­day.