Light wanted at fatal crash site

For the second time in as many meetings, the Lafourche Parish Council unanimously requested that state officials install a traffic light above a four-month-old intersection where two Houma teenagers were killed in an automobile accident April 1.

Taylor Caro, 19, and Alexandra Blaisdell, 18, died after the Lexus 300 Caro was driving ran a stop sign and was hit by an 18-wheeler.

At the time of the crash, the intersection was governed by stop signs on either side of Highway 3090, which splits Highway 1 with the Tommy J. Doucet toll bridge’s exit ramp.

The Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office has since installed flashing lights, and the state Department of Transportation and Development will install rumble strips and lighted stop signs soon, Parish President Charlotte Randolph said.

“But I know you’re looking for a more permanent solution,” she added.

The intersection, at La. Highway 1 and La. Highway 3090 in Fourchon, opened last December as a $143 million extension from the Leeville Bridge.

Five days before the crash, the council requested that a traffic light be installed. A request to have the light facing the elevated highway stay green longer was attached to each resolution.

“(DOTD) Sec. (Sherri) LeBas has since ordered a review of additional safety measures, in addition to a review of the speed limit through the intersection,” said Bambi Hall, a spokeswoman for DOTD.

State Rep. Jerry “Truck” Gislcair, D-Larose, authored a bill that would direct DOTD to lessen the speed limit along Highway 1 to 30 mph for a half-mile before and after the intersection. The bill was scheduled to be heard by the House Transportation, Highways, and Public Works Committee on Monday.

Members of the Lafourche Council expressed frustration after passing the resolution.

Councilman Jerry Lafont said he has been told it takes three fatalities before a traffic light can be installed, adding that he wanted to ask transportation officials if they’d like to have their children killed for the “red-light gods.”

“I’m tired of sacrificing our children for the Department of Transportation’s stupidity,” Lafont said.

DOTD does not have a three-fatality policy, Hall said. DOTD’s traffic-light installation policies are consistent with the nationally mandated Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, which takes into account traffic counts and crash history, among other metrics.

Councilman Daniel Lorraine blamed state officials who attended the intersection’s ribbon-cutting ceremony for not having the foresight to see that a traffic light was needed.

Lorraine lamented that the system is based on traffic counts, which he said are suppressed in rural areas, and added that system shouldn’t determine the safety of an intersection.

“It’s impossible to compete with the West Bank or the City of New Orleans with the criteria,” Lorraine said. “It’s not fair and it’s not right and it doesn’t mean you don’t need it … It takes somebody to be killed (to get a traffic light).”