Bail quadrupled for driver in wreck during Endymion parade

An Orleans Parish magistrate commissioner quadrupled the bail amount Tuesday for Neilson Rizzuto, the driver who is accused of plowing through a crowd of Endymion parade-goers Saturday night in a pickup truck, injuring dozens.

Police booked Rizzuto, 25, of Paradis, on two dozen additional counts of vehicular negligent injury, including 10 new aggravated counts based on the severity of the injuries to victims, who were struck near the corner of Carrollton and Orleans avenues.

Those charges add to the four counts that Rizzuto initially faced shortly after he was pulled out of his truck and arrested at the scene of the wreck, in which a parked dump truck stopped the pickup from barreling further into the crowd.

Magistrate Commissioner Albert Thibodeaux set bond for Rizzuto at $30,000 on each of the new aggravated counts and $10,000 on each of the other dozen new counts.

The latter charges, based on victims who suffered lesser injuries, carry a maximum six-month jail sentence. The maximum sentence on the aggravated counts is five years in prison.

The amounts set by Thibodeaux raised Rizzuto's total bail from $125,000 to $545,000 on all 26 counts he now faces.

For more of this story and background from what happened at the scene of the incident, visit The Advocate’s website.

This story was originally published March 1, 2017 at 1:24 PM with the headline "Bail quadrupled for driver in wreck during Endymion parade."