NEW ORLEANS — More heavy fog is expected in Southeast Louisiana Thursday night through Friday morning. The area has seen the same pattern for most of the week.
For those unfamiliar with driving in fog, it can be daunting, especially when visibility is severely impacted.
Sgt. Casey Smith with the Kenner Police Department Traffic Division says in that area, wrecks caused by fog are most common on I-10 during rush hour. He urges drivers to leave for work early if necessary, as "time and patience will go a long way."
Here are some tips from the National Weather Service to safely drive in heavy fog:
- Drive slowly
- Don't follow the car in front of you too closely
- Signal early
- If you cannot see anything, pull over a soon as it is safe to do so, then turn off your lights
- Use your low beams, not your brights
"Low beams direct light onto the road so you can see," Sgt. Smith said.
Drivers should also be extra careful on bridges. Bodies of water tend to have lower surface temperatures than land. That means the air immediately above is cooler, which generates more fog in warm weather. Thursday morning, the Greater New Orleans Expressway Commission closed both sides of the Causeway due to heavy fog. They did not reopen the last lane until the afternoon.
This week's fog has already been blamed for one tragedy.
Early Wednesday, 74-year-old Carol Roberts and her friend were taking their daily morning run on the Woodland Bridge. The NOPD says they got to the highest point on the westbound side, when a man, struggling to see in the fog, hit Roberts. She was thrown from the bridge and onto the ground below. EMS pronounced her dead at the scene. Roberts was a well-known figure in the tight-knit Belle Chasse community. She worked as an English teacher at Belle Chasse High School for twenty years, before filling her resume with a long list of public-facing roles, ending with Deputy Chief at the Plaquemines Parish Clerk of Court.
Though fender-benders are much more common, serious wrecks like Wednesday's are always a possibility in heavy fog.
"It's definitely happened before," Sgt. Smith said. "It will probably happen again."
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