Car accidents generally involve vehicles colliding into each other. All around New Orleans small fender benders and car collisions that do not cause injuries happen with regularity and throw annoying delays into people’s days. However, some accidents are so severe that not only do vehicles collide with each other but they also leave roadways and crash into other objects and landscapes.
While trees, light posts and even buildings are sometimes mentioned in news stories as objects struck during automobile accidents, a recent local car accident involved a very dangerous part of the local scenery. A multi-vehicle accident on the southbound lanes of the Causeway Bridge caused a great deal of disruption to the commutes of local residents. One of those vehicles went off of the bridge and slammed into Lake Pontchartrain.
Though divers were able to locate the car after the accident, the driver of the vehicle died before the rescue. The deceased driver’s identity has not been released and investigators are still looking into exactly what happened during the fatal incident. The south lanes of the bridge were closed in the wake of the tragedy as police pieced together information about the incident.
A straightforward auto accident can be devastating but this story highlights how quickly a bad situation can escalate when it occurs in a particularly treacherous location. Investigators will have to determine if the victim’s death was caused by the impact of the accident or if that person died because his or her vehicle became submerged in the lake. The individual or individuals who caused this fatal accident may face significant legal liability and could face wrongful death charges from the family of the deceased victim if their actions led to the death.
Source: katc.com, “Driver’s body found in Lake Pontchartrain,” Nov. 23, 2014