KENNER, La. — Two women are in the hospital, fighting for their lives, after crashing through a metal barrier and landing in a Kenner canal. Police are still searching for answers to what happened Thursday night.
Both neighbors and police tell us this is not the first time some sort of incident has happened where Chateau Blvd. meets the drainage canal. In fact, they say it's been at least two or three times before.
It was a scary scene Thursday night for neighbors who live near canal number 12 in Kenner.
“It's traumatizing. I ain't lying. Just seeing somebody hopeless lying, laying in the water. That could be your parents or somebody else stuck in the car,” said Jose, a young man who lives near the canal.
“It's amazing. It was, it wasn't five minutes, this place was covered with fire trucks and police,” said another neighbor Ken Barrette.
Around 8:40 p. m., neighbors heard a startling noise.
“It sounded like a big boom. Came outside, just ran outside, and I see a car flipped over, and I see a body just floating in the water, and I see police on the other side jump in the water,” Jose continued.
Kenner police and firefighters pulled the woman, who was floating, out of the water and began CPR. Then they dove back in to get the second woman, who was still restrained in the car. They started CPR on her as well. Police say why it happened is still unclear.
“There's no signs that there was any evasive action taken. They went in towards the water, the front tire, according to witnesses, hit the drainage pipe, and that's what inverted it. Made it land on the roof,” explained Kenner Police Chief, Keith Conley.
Neighbors and police were concerned someone else was still in the car.
“They had a car seat in back. Like I said, that's why we kept screaming saying, ‘We have a baby in there, maybe,” remembers Jose.
“They felt. There's no visibility underwater. They kept going under water. They did not find a child,” Conley said about the first responders who were in the water.
What's left on the scene is the hood of the car, that went flying when it crashed through the metal barrier at the dead end.
“Now feel this feel how heavy this is, and this didn't even slow it down, So, they had to be traveling at a pretty good speed to compromise this barricade and then end up launching themselves in to the water,” said Conley.
Police say the 58 and 60-year-old women are from an area of Kenner, called University City, a few miles from where the crash happened. They are unconscious in a hospital.
“They're both in critical condition, and intubated. There was water in both of their lungs,” the chief added.
“It's just a bad spot, and I don't know what they can really do, but I'd kind of like to put a stop sign, something big and red that they might see,” said Barrette.
Police say the main concern now is for the women's recovery, but going forward with the investigation, the car’s mechanics will be checked, as well as a toxicology report on the two victims.
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