Are Carnivals Really the Heavy Here,Our Reliance on "The Grid," Or Does $H1T Just Happen?

Of course, this is a rhetorical question -- at best -- if not a silly one.  And no disrespect is meant to those killed or injured during this terrible accident, or to those left to pick up the pieces.  

But it's difficult not to ask: how can this happen?

Well?  I'm not the only one asking the question.  Certainly, at the very least, the understandably distraught families of those lost, the men and women whose significant others are left tending very-open wounds, the children now without a loved one to kiss them goodnight before bed, and the cast of uncounted others left with only a void -- a void once filled by a friend, a confidant, or even a smile on an anonymous face passing in the croud.  I'm sure each of them have at least considered the question.

But year after year, Carnivale proceeds as though it is just a day on the calendar -- it happens without anyone's permission or assistance.  But in fact it does happen, and with the input and assistance of the hundreds of individuals without which Carnivale would be little more than an unscripted party, a large gathering of people who, by their own doing, would have no better chance at ensuring everyone's safey than that of the very well-scripted effort the Brazillians provide us, year after year.

Accidents happen: even the worse of them.  And accidents happen without assistance, and with the randomness of any one drop of rain in a rainstorm, and with the likeliness of occurring tantamount to that of that any one drop hitting any one specific person.  And whether you believe in a God, or in the many gods, or place bets on the randomness of chance: S#1T happens.

Carnival accident kills 16 in Brazil

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AFP/File – At least 16 people were killed at a carnival in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais when one of the floats …

By BRADLEY BROOKS, Associated Press – Mon Feb 28, 10:28 am ET

SAO PAULO – At least 16 people were electrocuted when a power line fell atop a packed pre-Carnival street parade in rural Brazil, police said Monday.

Witnesses reported a high-voltage power line sparked and fell on the dancing crowd after it was hit by metallic streamers commonly tossed during Brazil's Carnival or by fireworks, police said, though the cause remained under investigation.

"We have at least 16 dead, among them teenagers," said a police spokesman in the town of Bandeira do Sul in Minas Gerais state, north of Rio de Janeiro, where the accident happened Sunday night. "Most were hit by the line but it's possible the current passed from person to person because the crowd was so dense."  At least 54 other people were injured ...