Driving to Lafayette Sunday evening, I bore witness to the horrific traffic accident on the Atchafalaya Swamp Expressway that left five people dead and several others injured.
The accident occurred around 5:15 p.m. in the eastbound lanes when an Allied Moving Co. tractor-trailer plowed through 11 vehicles stopped or moving slowly because of a minor accident about two miles east. The 18-wheeler-carrying furniture-caught on fire, which took firefighters hours to put out. Three other vehicles also were on fire, including the back of another big-rig that was carrying pipes.
According to media reports, the driver of the 18-wheeler, Wladyslaw Gorski, 48, of Palm Harbor, Fla. died in the accident, as well as cousins Jennifer Garza, 9, and Cindy Guerra, 18, of La Ferre, Texas and Tentarosa, Texas, respectively. Carla Dunn, 27, of Denham Springs, who reportedly was pregnant, and her sister-in-law Melissa Dunn, 22, of West Monroe also died. The deceased all were in burning vehicles, though it is unknown if they died from the impact of the crash or the flames of the fire.
Sunday’s incident is eerily similar to a September 2002 crash that killed one person when a driver careened into traffic stopped because of a minor accident ahead on the Atchafalaya bridge. From 1990 to 2000 the 19-mile expanse of the bridge was the scene of nearly 20 fatalities according to a “Daily Advertiser” of Lafayette report. Since 1997, an average of 2.4 people have died on the bridge a year. In 1999 alone, Troop I, which patrols the bridge from the St. Martin parish line west, issued nearly 7,000 tickets for their portion of the bridge alone, according to the Baton Rouge Advocate.
Officials have long complained about the safety of the bridge. Narrow shoulders make the speed limit difficult to enforce on the high-rise section of the interstate, and troopers often must rely on air patrol to catch speeding and hostile drivers.
The state legislature raised the speed limit on the bridge in 1997 from 55 mph to 70 mph, but lowered the limit to 60 mph in 1998 after a 106-car pile-up claimed the lives of four people. The 279-mile stretch of I-10 in Louisiana frequently is ranked as one of the worst interstates in the country. Obviously, the Department of Transportation and Development’s plans to improve the safety of I-10 should be sped up and new initiatives conceived, especially relating to the Atchafalaya Basin bridge.
Currently, the DOTD is working on new Intelligent Transportation System for I-10. The system is a series of electronic billboards that will warn of traffic problems before the bridge and electronically lower speed limits if there is a problem on the bridge itself. The system originally was scheduled to be in working condition last year, but complications have held up its implementation until at least late this summer. Perhaps, if this system were in place on Sunday, Gorski would have known problems were ahead and paid enough attention not to plow into stopped traffic.
Democratic state Sen. Robert Marionneaux of Livonia told the Advocate he possibly would introduce legislation next session that would create a police force similar to the Causeway Toll Bridge’s that would have primary jurisdiction in policing the bridge.
In a “Daily Advertiser” online poll conducted to determine “the best way to prevent crashes” on the bridge, six percent of the near 500 respondents so far believe the speed limit should be lowered for everyone, 26 percent believe speed limits for big trucks should be lowered, 42 percent believe better enforcement would best improve safety, 16 percent believe the DOTD should implement electronic warning signs, and eight percent believe the road should be redesigned and rebuilt.
If we don’t do something about the safety of the Atchafalaya Basin bridge, more accidents are bound to come. Instead of blowing bubbles in her oblivious childhood, that little girl could be a miniature sized body bag much like 9-year-old Jennifer Garza’s.