Officer hit by golf cart during parade

NEW YORK, Nov. 12 (UPI) -- A New York police officer who was pinned to the road by a golf cart during the city's Veterans Day Parade said the bruises are nothing compared to the ribbing.

Sgt. Brian Byrnes, 49, said he was escorting Mayor Michael Bloomberg up Fifth Avenue during Wednesday's parade along with other members of the Manhattan South Task Force when a parade organizer riding in a golf cart struck him from the rear, the New York Post reported Thursday.

"It hit me, and I went face first on the concrete," the sergeant said. "Then this guy hit the gas instead of the brake, and it drove up the middle of my body."

Byrnes said his fellow officers lifted the golf cart off of him and borrowed the golf cart to drive him to an ambulance. The sergeant, who suffered bruises to his ankles and hips, said that's when the mocking started.

"Once they knew I was OK, they were ribbing me the whole way," he said. "The first thing over the radio was, 'Got to be careful, those golf carts are dangerous.' "