NEW ORLEANS — After seven people died in New Orleans on Oct. 24 during a “super fog” event, a spotlight was cast on the city and state about highway safety.
Super fog occurs when smoke — in this case from marsh fires — mixes with dense fog.
A new study has revealed how dangerous the roads in New Orleans really are for drivers.
The data, pulled by New Orleans Personal Injury lawyer Cueria Law Firm, is from the Center for Analytics and Research in Transportation Safety and looks at roadway accidents across all of Louisiana.
The study revealed that across both 2022 and 2023, there have been a total of 72,764 accidents resulting in suspected injury in Louisiana, with 1,358 proving fatal.
Despite the tragic superfog event, New Orleans has been revealed as one of the top 10 safest areas for drivers, with a fatal crash rate of just 1.25%.
To put this into perspective, out of Louisiana’s 64 parishes, New Orleans was ranked the 55th most dangerous.
The data revealed New Orleans has had a total of 9,355 accidents and 117 fatal accidents across 2022 and 2023.
Elsewhere in the state, Caldwell is the riskiest parish, as 8.7% of crashes there proved to be fatal, revealing it as one of the deadliest places to drive in all of Louisiana.
Caldwell had a total of 92 crashes in 2022 and 2023, eight of which were fatal. Despite the number of crashes being much lower than in other Louisiana areas, their fatality percentage was very high, making it statistically the most unsafe parish for drivers.
The parish of Winn followed closely behind Caldwell as the second most dangerous, with 8.6% of crashes resulting in fatalities — that’s significantly higher than the state’s average fatality rate of 3.09%.
In third place, the parish of St. Helena had a total of 122 crashes, with 10 of these turning out to be lethal. This gave them a ranking of third most dangerous, as 8.2% of accidents were fatal.
East Feliciana ranked as the fourth riskiest parish for drivers, with 8.09% of accidents proving deadly.
Following as the fifth most dangerous area, with 8.02% of its accidents being fatal, Franklin was revealed as being another hazardous area for drivers.
Born in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and raised in East Texas, John Worthen returned to his home state to attend college in 1998 and decided to make his life in The Natural State. Worthen is a 20-year veteran of the journalism industry and has covered just about every topic there is. He has a passion for writing and telling stories. He has worked as a beat reporter and bureau chief for a statewide newspaper and as managing editor of a regional newspaper in Arkansas. Additionally, Worthen has been a prolific freelance journalist for two decades, and has been published in several travel magazines and on travel websites.
