Louisiana State Police say a Honduran man who had entered the United States illegally was driving a bus that hit a firetruck on an elevated highway, killing two people and injuring dozens.
Advertisement
Louisiana State Police and the St. John the Baptist Fire Department responded to and were protecting the crash scene.
A fatal crash on Interstate 10 West shut down the roadway Sunday morning. The bus full of construction workers, seen, hit a firetruck on an el.
Louisiana state troopers and St. John the Baptist firefighters were at the scene of an accident in which a speeding pickup truck had hit a guard rail on I-10 shortly before 7 a.m. today, Matey said.
The bus veered into the right lane, hitting three firemen who were investigating the original auto wreck, bolting them almost 30 to 40 feet over the guardrail and into the water below them.
The bus then veered and struck all three firefighters, hurling them into water about 35-feet below, police said.
St. John the Baptist Parish Fire Chief Spencer Chauvin, 36, died, and a passenger in another auto that was also struck was killed, Louisiana State Police spokeswoman Melissa Matey said.
A bus driven by an illegal immigrant without a driver’s license crashed into an ongoing accident scene, causing the deaths of two people and leaving 41 more injured.
By Sunday evening Beal had been released, while Saale remained hospitalized with critical injuries, according to State Police. The driver of the auto, identified as 35-year-old Marcus Tate, also of Moss Point, was airlifted to Our Lady of the Lake Hospital in Baton Rouge with serious injuries.
Other injuries – including the Titan’s two occupants, who suffered minor injuries in the original crash – ranged from minor to moderate, Matey said.
It was not immediately clear why the bus driver, Denis Yasmir Amaya Rodriguez, 37, lost control. Police say that additional charges are forthcoming.
Six other people were airlifted to trauma hospitals in New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Matey said. Criminal charges are pending against Rodriguez, who has no driver’s license and entered the USA illegally, said Trooper Melissa Matey, spokeswoman for the State Police.
No listing in Jefferson was available.
Authorities said they have identified 24 passengers who were on the bus and that they were heading to Baton Rouge in the flooding aftermath, but were not volunteers as some had referred to them soon after the accident.
Trooper Melissa Matey told NOLA.com ‘ The Times-Picayune (http://bit.ly/2bKiYW8 ) that the bus driver did not have a commercial license and was not authorized to drive a bus.
Advertisement
Rodriguez, who was also treated at a hospital, will be booked into the St. John the Baptist Correctional Center and charged with two counts of negligent homicide, reckless operation, and having no driver’s license, Matey said.
