Sunday, July 14, 2002
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Sunday, July 14, 2002 |
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Clowns respond to girl run over by float in PTC July 4th parade
By JOHN
MUNFORD
When an 11-year-old girl was run over by a trailer in Peachtree City's Fourth of July parade last week, the first emergency unit on the scene was a bunch of clowns. Pops the Clown and Sparkles helped take care of the girl, whose leg had been run over by one of the floats while she was distracted, according to witness accounts, said Fire Chief Stony Lohr. Pops is really Sandy Faulkner, a career firefighter paramedic, while Sparkles is volunteer EMT Robin Lasky. The girl was not seriously injured and an ambulance ride to the hospital was declined, Lohr said. When Pops and Sparkles happened upon the accident, a family friend had already moved the victim, so the emergency personnel decided to transport her to the nearby fire station for evaluation, Lohr said. Normally, emergency crews would assess the patient before moving him or her to make sure moving the victim wouldn't make the situation worse, Lohr added. While some might make jokes about the Fire Department "sending in its clowns," the victim was especially fortunate to have Pops and Sparkles respond to the scene, Lohr said. "In this case, those are some pretty good clowns to come and rescue you," Lohr said. "You could do much worse." Faulkner and Lasky have received formal clown training so they can teach fire safety techniques to young children in a way they are more likely to comprehend. This is a technique adopted by many fire departments in Georgia. Lasky's son John, also dressed as a clown named Giggles, was on the scene in addition to Faulkner's daughter Tara, who both rode in the parade with their parents. The incident occurred on Peachtree Parkway near the entrance to Ruby Tuesday, Lohr added.
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