Another Wrong-Way Head-On Crash in Louisiana Kills 1
Another wrong-way driver in Louisiana has caused a crash that has resulted in 1 fatality and several injuries.
Like some of the other wrong-way crashes that have happened in Louisiana recently, this one happened on a divided highway, at night.
Louisiana State Police reports that one person has died from injuries received in the crash while 5 people sustained varying degrees of injuries.
According to the press release from Louisiana State Police, the crash occurred after dark on July 30 in Washington Parish, just before 11 pm.
A 35-year-old man from Mandeville was traveling north in the southbound lanes of Highway 21 in a 2000 Toyota Tundra.
Traveling south in the southbound lanes was a 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee with 5 occupants.
The vehicles collided head-on and, as a result of the impact, the Jeep turned over.
All five occupants of the Jeep received various injuries, with the driver sustaining the most serious of the injuries of those in the vehicle. All five were in the Jeep were properly restrained. They were all transported to a hospital.
The driver of the Toyota was unrestrained and, as a result of his injuries, died on the scene.
Impairment of either driver is unknown at this time as toxicology results are pending.
If a story of a wrong-way driver on a divided highway in Louisiana sounds familiar, it should. Why? Because it happens too often.
Recently, in both Vermilion Parish and St. Landry Parish, similar crashes occurred when drivers entered divided highways traveling in the wrong direction.
In the Vermilion Parish incident in January of this year, an 18-year-old North Vermilion High School student lost her life when her vehicle crashed head-on into a vehicle being driven the wrong way.
Ramsie Baumgardner was killed when a 31-year-old Carencro man was driving north in the southbound lanes of Highway 167 near Abbeville. The driver from Carencro was killed as a result of the crash as well.
Just before Christmas of last year, 4 people were killed when a wrong-way driver crashed head-on into a vehicle after he entered I-49 headed north in the southbound lanes. That crash took the life of the wrong-way driver (his BAC was 3x the legal limit), and it also took the lives of 3 siblings from Iberia Parish.
In both of the above scenarios, the drivers of the vehicles traveling in the wrong direction were intoxicated.
Please remember that drinking and driving is a bad idea, always.