A boy was injured during this morning's July Fourth parade in Upper Arlington when he was run over by a float, police said. The boy was walking alongside a trailer being pulled by a large pickup truck when he either stopped or lost his footing, witnesses said. He was knocked to the ground and a trailer wheel ran up over his leg.

A boy was injured during Monday's July Fourth parade in Upper Arlingtonwhen he was run over by a float.

The boy was walking alongside a trailer being pulled by a large pickup truck when he either stopped or lost his footing, witnesses said. He was knocked to the ground and a trailer wheel ran up over his leg.

"We were screaming for the driver to back up," said Karen Hockstad of the Columbus. "It was pretty gruesome to watch."

Hockstad was watching the parade from a friend's yard at Northwest Boulevard and Collingswood Road as the float carrying the Class of 1991 rolled by.

"There were a ton of people on it," Hockstad said.

The driver of the pickup advertising Marzetti Pools said the boy was walking next to the float and in front of the tandem wheels that stick out from the 16-foot-long trailer. He said he backed up until people told him the wheel was off the boy.

"I was told he got up and was walking around," the driver, who declined to give his name, said. He didn't know the boy's name but believed he was related to someone on the float.

Upper Arlington police Officer Shawn Paynter estimated the boy's age at about 11 but did not have his name. He said the boy suffered a leg injury and was taken to Nationwide Children's Hospital. Paynter did not know the boy's condition but said the injury was not life-threatening.

"He seemed to be doing OK," the officer said.

The incident stopped the parade that travels south on Northwest Boulevard for about a half-hour while paramedics cared for the boy.

"The Upper Arlington police and fire departments along with some neighborhood physicians took very good care of that little boy," Hockstad said. "He is very lucky."

erinehart@dispatch.com

@esrinehart