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Carlton Dufrechou, the general manager of the Lake Pontchartrain
Causeway, said there were six crashes — two on the southbound
span and four on the northbound span. St. Tammany Parish fire
officials told local news outlets that 33 people were
transported to area hospitals with injuries. There were no
fatalities.
Dufrechou said he didn’t know the exact number of vehicles
involved in the crashes or the total number of injuries.
A total of 30 people were stranded on the bridge for hours and
were transported by van to either Metairie on the south shore or
Mandeville on the lake's north shore throughout the day,
officials said.
“Fog was definitely a factor but from what I’m hearing it was
not the (only) factor,” he said. “There was some haze on the
bridge but the fog developed all of a sudden. We look at
accidents all the time on this bridge and 60% to 70% of those
wrecks are due to inattentive driving, either texting or
answering a phone or looking down and not looking at the road."
The causeway, connecting the New Orleans metro area on the south
shore to suburban communities on the north shore, was closed
around 8:30 a.m. After damaged vehicles from the two parallel
spans were cleared, the bridge was reopened at about 5 p.m. with
rolling convoys, officials said.
Tuesday’s crashes were reminiscent of a deadly accident on
Interstate 55 on Oct. 23, 2023, near New Orleans. Seven
motorists died and about two dozen were injured in pileups
involving about 160 vehicles amid a super fog, which is created
by smoke from marsh fires mixing with dense fog.
The Bonnet Carre Spillway Bridge was also briefly closed amid
the fog but was later reopened. No accidents were reported on
that bridge during the bad weather.
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