A “party bus” carrying 13 passengers collided with a pickup truck late in the afternoon of Saturday, Oct. 25, 2014 in Edgard, Louisiana, leaving nine people injured. One of the injured parties was a 14-year-old boy who had to be taken to the trauma center at Louisiana State University Medical Center via helicopter due to the severity of his injuries. He is currently reported as being in critical condition.
The truck was traveling westward on Highway 18 when it made a turn directly in front of the path of the party bus (which was traveling eastward), leading to a T-bone collision. The bus veered after being hit by the truck, causing it to collide with two parked cars on the side of the roadway. The truck was reportedly attempting to turn into a driveway at the time of the crash. Highway 18 is a stretch of road that runs alongside the Mississippi River through multiple towns in Saint John Parish.
Three people in the truck—including the teenaged boy with life-threatening injuries—were injured in the crash and are being treated at a local hospital for their injuries. There is no word yet on the condition of the two other passengers in the truck.
Investigation as to the cause of the crash and what factors came into play remains ongoing at this time. Drivers of both the truck and the bus have consented to voluntary tests for drugs and alcohol, and the results of these tests may help state police to determine if drugs or alcohol played a role in the collision.
According to traffic accident reports made available by Louisiana State University, although only 0.5 percent of all injurious traffic accidents in the state in the year 2014 involved buses, 44 percent of those accidents involved pickup trucks. Also, 48 percent of all traffic accidents in Louisiana in 2014 took place on state roads, while 14 percent of them happened on parish roads. There were a total of more than 43,000 traffic accidents reported in Louisiana thus far in 2014.