NEW ORLEANS — The crowd on a packed Frenchmen Street ran for safety Friday as a car cut through them and crashed into the parklet outside Café Negril.
Jim Croswell was one of them.
“We’re standing right here on the corner and there was a car that was seemingly just going through normal traffic,” Croswell said. “Then, suddenly, it decided it wanted to take off.”
The rest was caught on surveillance video.
The driver turned off Frenchmen Street at the intersection of Chartres and crashes into a parked van, rear-ending it multiple times. The driver then put the car in reverse and get back on Frenchmen before speeding down the busy street, nearly hitting a rollerskater and crashing into Café Negril’s outdoor seating.
Thankfully, no one was hurt. The driver was arrested and charged with reckless operation of a vehicle, driving without insurance or registration, and a hit and run, police said.
But it raises the question: Should there be cars on Frenchmen Street at night at all?
The City of New Orleans considered blocking traffic on two blocks of Frenchmen Street, from Chartres to Royal, from 7 p.m. to 4 a.m. back in 2020.
However, it was part of a larger plan to create a more pedestrian friendly French Quarter. That idea was put on the backburner after neighbors protested and the COVID-19 pandemic took the city's focus.
For that particular stretch of Frenchmen, it would have worked like Bourbon Street. With barricades and police officers set up to let cars pass through Frenchmen Street, without letting them turn onto it.
People got a taste of what that would be like on Halloween, when the city executed a similar plan to keep crowds safe on one of Frenchmen’s busiest weekends.
“Halloween was pretty great,” Brad Clement, Manager at the Spotted Cat, said. “It just made it very accessible for people to go from club to club.”
It’s something Clement thinks the City should consider again after Friday’s crash.
“We’re luck that nobody got hurt, but from what I hear it was pretty rough,” he said. “It’s something we should bring up with City Council.”
Many of the business owners and workers we spoke with on Saturday were on board with the idea, though there were worries about how musicians would get their instruments and equipment into venues late at night – as well as how far away workers would have to park, potentially putting them in danger as they walk down side streets with cash from that night.
But for now, all Frenchmen Street can do it pick up the pieces from Friday night’s crash and hope for the best.
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