A golf cart that is welcome on the beach at Grand Isle is not automatically legal on every nearby street. Louisiana starts with a statewide prohibition on golf carts on public roads, then allows parishes and municipalities to open particular local routes. Grand Isle adds its own permit and operating rules, while a separate…
Louisiana’s impaired-operation statute is broader than its old DWI shorthand suggests. The current law is titled “Operating a vehicle while impaired,” and it applies to the operation of a motor vehicle, aircraft, watercraft, vessel, or other means of conveyance. A roadway and a conventional car are not required. The statute focuses on operation, impairment,…
Louisiana does not impose one blanket rule for every passenger in every pickup bed. The answer depends on the passenger’s age, the truck’s weight, the type of road and whether a narrow exception applies. State law generally bars children under 12 from an open pickup bed on a highway and bars passengers of any…
A Louisiana funeral procession with a police escort may continue through an intersection after its lead vehicle lawfully enters, even if the traffic signal changes. That is the specific protection in Louisiana Revised Statute 32:300.3. Attending the same funeral does not give each driver independent permission to enter on red. The protected group must…
NHTSA recorded 41 fatal crashes and 44 fatalities in Lincoln Parish from 2020 through 2024. Twelve of those fatal crashes, with 13 fatalities, were coded within Ruston. At the parish level, 24 of 41 fatal crashes occurred from 6:00 p.m. through 5:59 a.m., 23 were coded rural, and I-20 appeared in 13 records. The 2024 figures are provisional, and all of these are descriptive counts rather than findings of fault or risk rates.
A closed frozen daiquiri can fall outside Louisiana’s definition of an open alcoholic container. That is the legal distinction behind the familiar drive-through cup: the lid must be on, no straw may protrude, and none of the drink may have been removed. The rule addresses transporting the drink. A seller still has to comply…
A driver-facing camera may notice that someone has looked down at a phone and sound an alert before the vehicle drifts from its lane. Whether that warning prevents a crash depends on what the system detects, how quickly it responds, and whether the driver acts. Driver monitoring systems, or DMS, offer that extra chance…
Yes. Louisiana State Police reported that troopers inspected 26 commercial vehicles and issued 26 citations during an August 13, 2026 enforcement detail on the Atchafalaya Basin Bridge. The citations were for disregarding traffic-control devices that require commercial vehicles to remain in the right lane. Troopers also identified four additional safety violations and placed one…
There is no honest one-number answer to the question “Which Baton Rouge intersection is the most dangerous?” A location can lead the city in reported crashes because it carries enormous traffic, while a lower-volume intersection may have fewer crashes but a higher crash rate. A serious-injury analysis can produce a different list from either…
Lists of the states with the “worst drivers” often make Louisiana look alarming. The problem is that the lists do not all measure the same thing. One may count fatal crashes, another may use insurance claims, and another may combine citations, speeding, impaired driving, and other behavior into a private score. That makes a…
A breath-test number can matter after an alcohol-related crash, but it does not answer every question in an injury claim. It may help show a driver’s alcohol concentration when the sample was taken. It does not, by itself, establish how the crash happened, whether the test was administered correctly, or which injuries the collision…
Holiday traffic in Louisiana does not follow one simple pattern. Mardi Gras puts sustained pressure on streets and highways. Thanksgiving compresses long trips into a few busy travel windows. Halloween brings more pedestrians into neighborhoods after dark. The numbers below help show when serious crashes have clustered, but they do not prove why any…
A citywide fatal-crash or homicide rate does not describe the safety of a university campus. It does describe part of the community around it. This historical analysis placed U.S. towns with substantial student populations into two interactive tables using fatal-crash and homicide measures. The events counted occurred within city limits, not necessarily on or…
Last reviewed: September 26, 2026 People often ask about the odds of dying in a car crash because they want one number that tells them whether driving is safe. There is no honest way to turn a national statistic into a personal prediction. The useful question is what the available data measures, which risks…
Editorial & Legal Accuracy Notice (Louisiana) This article uses official federal and Louisiana traffic data available on the review date. Preliminary estimates can change when agencies complete and revise their datasets. Last reviewed / updated: September 22, 2026 Reviewed, updated, and authored by: Stephen Babcock, Louisiana trial lawyer, Louisiana Bar No. 26792. Traffic deaths…