Carnival toll: 8 dead, 143 injured

EIGHT people died during and 143 were injured in Carnival related events by 8 am Tuesday Feb. 28, as the Joint Task Force set plans in motion to assist the flow of traffic as hundreds of thousands of Panama City residents began the homeward crawl.

Five of the deaths and 143 injuries were the result of 249 traffic accidents.

Starting at Chorrera outward bound  highway lanes were closed at half hourly intervals to provide more lanes for scores of thousands returning vehicles through Tuesday,  and the “tidal flow” measures will continue until 1pm on Wednesday, March 1 when  revelers are due to return to work.

By 10 am Tuesday some 44,000 vehicles had returned to the city of the 112,000 that left on the weekend.