The Highway Safety Research Group at LSU has released it’s 2018 compiled data on car accidents in Louisiana. This data is a compilation of stats directly from the state, sheriff and local police departments throughout Louisiana. This data includes small and large parishes including New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Lafayette & New Iberia. We’ve gathered some of the data here and given our insights on them.
Data is important for many agencies throughout the state as they use crash data to develop state safety programs and find high car accident intersections and roads. It can also come in handy to vehicle design engineers developing new cars or truck safety features.
Here are the parishes in Louisiana that have the highest amount of car accidents:
5th Parish with the Most Car Accidents Resulting in Injury:
Lafayette
Lafayette, LA is one of the largest cities in Louisiana, with a population of 126,848. It had 2,632 car crashes that resulted in bodily injury of some sort. That means around 2% of the population was in some sort of car accident. That’s slightly higher than the national median of 1.8%. Lafayette is a smaller city with smaller roads, drivers tend to be slower and less alert of their surroundings which could attribute to the slight difference in car accidents in Lafayette, LA. Lafayette Police Corporal Paul Mouton said in 2014 that major car accidents could be attributed to drivers going through red lights on left turns. Lafayette, LA also has it’s share of dangerous intersections:
- Ambassador Caffery Parkway near Kaliste Saloom Road: 152
- Johnston Street near College Road: 113
- Ambassador Caffery Parkway near Johnston Street: 108
- Johnston Street near Camellia Boulevard / Rena Drive: 104
- Pinhook Road near Kaliste Saloom Road: 97
- Ambassador Caffery Parkway near Robley Drive: 93
- West Congress Street near Guilbeau Road: 84
- Willow Street near Evangeline Thruway: 74
- Ambassador Caffery Parkway near Congress Street: 66
- West Willow Street near Ambassador Caffery Parkway: 65
With Lafayette seeing more and more people relocating there, the roads are overcrowded and poorly built to accommodate all the vehicles on the road. Since Lafayette is a central city in “Acadiana” many people commute to Lafayette from other cities, increasing congestion and car accidents.
If you’ve been in a car accident or truck accident in Lafayette, contact the Voorhies Law Firm, as we have offices in this area.
4th Parish with the Most Car Accidents Resulting in Injury:
Caddo
Caddo is the 4th most populous city in Louisiana at 254,969 people, with the parish seat being Shreveport, LA. Caddo, LA had 2,885 car accidents in 2018, with almost 5,000 people being injured as a result. Caddo had 41 fatal crashes, which resulted in 45 deaths. Many of these fatal car accidents have one thing in common: speed. People were driving way above the posted speed limit, which is almost always a factor in car accident deaths.
Caddo is part of the Shreveport metropolitan area and the Voorhies Law Firm has offices in Shreveport, so if you’ve been injured in a car accident in Caddo, please contact us for help.
3rd Parish with the Most Car Accidents Resulting in Injury:
Jefferson
Jefferson Parish is included in the New Orleans-Metairie, LA Metropolitan Statistical Area and in 2018 it had 3,273 crashes that resulted in injury. Jefferson Parish has a population of 432,552, which means only .7% of its residents were involved in car accidents, well below the median nationally and the lowest on our list. It also only had 20 total fatal crashes which is much lower than other parishes with fewer populations. Jefferson parish includes a lot of safe cities and this could be a factor in the low amount of car accidents and car fatalities.
2nd Parish with the Most Car Accidents Resulting in Injury:
East Baton Rouge
East Baton Rouge is the most populous parish in the state of Louisiana. It has a population of 440,171. In 2018 it had 4,828 car accidents that resulted in some sort of bodily injury. 1% of its residents were involved in a car crash which resulted in injury. That isn’t bad compared to the other parishes on our list.
#1 Parish with the Most Car Accidents Resulting in Injury:
New Orleans
Unfortunately, our home city of New Orleans is number one with the most accidents resulting in some sort of injury. We’ve had 5,521 crashes in our parish of New Orleans. We’re slightly behind Baton Rouge with 30 deaths from car accidents. New Orleans has many bridges, one-way roads and long stretches of roadway along the Pontchartrain Expressway without any shoulders, or a very small area for shoulders. When wrecks happen, drivers cannot move them out of the way of these sections of road and that sometimes results in additional auto accidents. In June it was announced the city would begin to add a shoulder across this stretch. Drunk driving is also an issue, with New Orleans being known as the “Big Easy” many residents and out-of-towners visit Bourbon Street and other areas and drink and drive. With small roads and aggressive drivers, speed wrecks are also an issue, resulting in car accidents and death from crashes.
The Voorhies Law Firm is based in New Orleans, LA and can help you if you’ve been in a car accident. We are a trusted personal injury firm that has handled all sorts of cases from personal injury, medical malpractice, car accidents, truck accidents, and wrongful death.
