“If it was just wet weather, I would be fine with it because then it would be a call for parents to decide. But this is just a little bit different in the sense that we’re becoming really sensitive now about health and safety issues.
“All that would need to happen is a young child to see a lot of our float trucks like fire engines, emergency response, demolition trucks that are really cool that actually could cause quite a bit of damage to a wee person if their parent perhaps wasn’t paying attention in the moment.”
She said because of the Avondale incident, it was decided the parade “absolutely” needed more marshals than in previous years.
The decision to cancel the parade was not an easy one and Swales said she felt terrible for all the community groups and schools that had volunteered to participate in the parade.
But what makes the situation worse is the fact the Petone Twilight Parade had already been postponed from the week before due to bad weather – before disaster struck the Avondale event.
Had the sun been shining, the children would have had their chance to celebrate the festive season as planned.
What happened at Avondale was awful, and ruined what should have been a joyous event for all of those affected by it. But the possibility of it happening again must be unlikely.
Of course, organisers must weigh up health and safety risks when planning such events, but in this case it seems overboard to cancel an entire parade based on a one-off occurrence hundreds of thousands of kilometres away.
And surely it’s not the first time a Christmas parade has gone awry - should we simply cancel them altogether? Being prepared is one thing, but being driven by fear is another.
In nearby Wellington, Christmas is being celebrated with a tree made of road cones, and elves adorned in safety vests and road cone hats.
Maybe next year we could have less of the worry and more of the joy that’s supposed to make Christmas the most magical time of the year.
