NEW ORLEANS — Lake Pontchartrain Causeway officials are investigating three major accidents on the bridge in less than 24 hours.
Thursday morning, they said a speeding vehicle hit both guard rails in the southbound lane, struck another vehicle and flipped over.
That closed the bridge during the peak of the morning commute for close to an hour.
“We actually had two injuries in that, the driver of the first vehicle that flipped and the second one, we had to actually pull the door off to get the driver out of the vehicle,” Causeway GM Carlton Dufrechou said.
There were two wrecks on the Causeway on Wednesday.
A tire blew out on a vehicle causing the first accident.
A short time later, a pickup truck came close to flying off the bridge after hitting the back of an SUV.
That closed the northbound span during the evening commute.
Dufrechou says this accident shows the consequences of inattentive driving.
“The driver pretty much acknowledged that his head was not where it should have been,” Dufrechou said. “Really got to make an effort, a mental effort to pay attention.”
Christopher Temples was on the bridge at the time.
“We sat on the bridge for about 45 to an hour, trying to get home from work,” Temples said. “It’s pretty bad because people are still trying to cut in and out of lanes and we’re not really going anywhere.”
Chris Dupassage sees a lot of bad driving during his twice-a-month trips across the Causeway.
“I think the general rate of speed has increased whereas they used to keep it about 65, try to stay with the pace of traffic, and now I get passed by people doing 75, all the time,” Dupassage said.
Causeway officials say one of the leading causes of accidents on the bridge is people looking down at their phone, rather than keeping their eyes on the road and traffic ahead.
“Man, that’s not only stupid, it’s selfish,” Dufrechou said. It’s one thing if you hurt yourself, but more than likely, particularly on a bridge like the Causeway you’re going to hurt somebody else.”
Dufrechou added, there were about 130 accidents on the bridge last year, with the majority of the wrecks caused by reckless or inattentive driving.
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