All was normal at the annual Black Walnut Festival parade until a local Stockton student was seriously injured from falling beneath a float he’d been riding at around 3:34 p.m. Saturday.
The accident occured around the middle of the parade near the intersection of North and W. Davis Street.
According to a Missouri State Highway Patrol report, that student — a 12-year-old boy not identified in the report — fell off the right side of a float and was run over.
The student suffered serious injuries and was transported by aircraft to Mercy Hospital in Springfield.
The 12-year-old boy’s father said on social media that the boy is “going to be OK.”
“The scans came back without any major internal injuries,” the boy’s father said in a statement. “He had a torn artery in his arm and a large gash, several inches and very deep, across the butt.” The father extended a thank you to the community and first responders for their messages and prayers.
R-1 superintendent Doug Crawford released a statement about the accident on Monday.
“As many in our community know, a student of the District was injured on Saturday during the parade associated with the Black Walnut Festival,” Crawford said. “While we cannot release specific information regarding individual students of the District, please know that we have been in contact with the student’s family and the student is recovering well.”
“The family and our District are thankful for the outpouring of support from our community and appreciate everyone who responded quickly to assist after the incident,” Crawford said.
Additionally, Stockton Lake Sertoma Club stated they were thankful for the community's support and the quick response of the first responders on scene that day.
CCR archives do not pull up any record of previous injuries reported in the annual Black Walnut Festival parade. In the next county over, however, a “participant was run over after falling off a float” during Bolivar’s annual Christmas parade in 2017, according to Bolivar Herald-Free Press archives.
