Drunk driver rams parade of beauty queens, church floats and politicians, WV cops say

A traditional small-town Independence Day parade in West Virginia took a bizarre turn Wednesday when a driver drove through the festivities, hitting four vehicles, including a fire truck, officials say.

It happened in Alderson, a town of about 1,200 people in Greenbrier County that has been holding a July 4th parade the past 57 years. At least one person was hurt, police said in a Facebook post.

The suspect, 56-year-old Paul Davis, had been drinking when he hit two parked cars, then merged into a parade crammed full of church floats, well-polished fire trucks, convertibles carrying waving beauty queens and motorcycle clubs, officials said.

Davis then struck two vehicles participating in the parade, one of them a fire engine owned by the Talcott Volunteer Fire Department, police said.

The series of crashes brought the parade to a temporary halt, according to a Facebook post.

Police did not say how the woman was injured during the incident, but she was treated and released at the scene, officials said.

Davis is now in jail charged with aggravated DUI with bodily injury, failure to yield to an emergency vehicle and leaving the scene of an accident. He is currently in the Southern Regional Jail awaiting bond, police said.

He lives eight miles northeast of Alderson, in Asbury, West Virginia, police said.

This story was originally published July 5, 2018 at 12:30 PM.