Proposed parish pipeline provides promise
May 3, 2011
Rebecca Cheramie
May 5, 2011
The Acadian Express Chevron gas station at the corner of West Main Street and South Hollywood Road nearly succumbed to a disaster last week when a speeding van narrowly missed its gas pumps and struck the building and a locker of propane tanks.
After the vehicle struck building, it continued onto West Main, where it collided with a truck. Capt. Dawn Foret with the Terrebonne Parish Sheriff’s Office said no one was seriously injured and the drivers of both vehicles involved were released from the hospital later that day.
“Apparently he had a medical condition and they believe that he blacked out,” Foret said of the van’s driver. “There were no charges filed.”
Because it was not a criminal incident, TPSO declined to release the name of the van’s driver.
The van was traveling eastbound on South Hollywood Road last Wednesday when it veered into the Maison De Ville Nursing Home yard then swerved across four lanes of traffic, clipped its passenger-side mirror on a street sign and jumped the curb into the gas station’s lot, according to Mitchell Bourg, who said he witnessed the accident from the Quick Zone parking lot across the street.
Bourg, 18, said the driver was traveling “way faster than he should have been going” and estimated the speed to have been between 65 and 75 mph.
“I’m playing it again through my mind, and I can’t believe I saw that,” Bourg said. He added that he didn’t know if the vehicle crossed Martin Luther King Boulevard or turned onto Hollywood off of it.
Jade Boone, the Chevron district supervisor, said the Blue Rhino propane locker contained 16 to 20 filled propane tanks when it was demolished. Shards of its casing were scattered near the east end of the lot.
Bourg said propane tanks were lodged beneath both vehicles involved as the van continued to push the truck backward.
The Acadian Express reopened for business later that day after a building inspector said it was safe to occupy. The south side door pane was shattered and the building sustained heavy aesthetic damage to the southeastern corner.
Janey Jaubert, an employee at the convenience store, said she was doing custodial work inside when she heard a “boom.” She marveled at how close the van was to striking the gas pumps.
“Thankfully, he missed them,” she said.
The Acadian Express Chevron convenience store on the corner of West Main Street and South Hollywood Road sustained damage to its southeastern corner last week when a van speeded into the lot and struck the building after its driver blacked out due to a medical condition. ERIC BESSON
