Not all of the accidents that take place on Louisiana’s roads are easily investigated. In a single car accident, it can be difficult to determine exactly what happened. This is especially true if the occupant or occupants of the vehicle do not survive the crash.
Law enforcement officials may need some time to determine what happened in a single vehicle crash that took place on Louisiana Highway 11. The accident took place at approximately 2 a.m. on a recent Thursday. When sheriff’s deputies arrived, they found a passenger car engulfed in flames.
It was not until the Plaquemines Parish Fire Department extinguished the flames that emergency personnel noticed that there were bodies in the vehicle. It turns out that three people lost their lives in the fire. There may be no way to determine whether any of them would have lived if the vehicle had not caught fire. At last report, officials are not releasing the identities of the victims because the coroner had not yet done the autopsies. The Plaquemines Parish Sheriff’s Office reports that the Louisiana State Police, which was also on scene after the crash, will be conducting an investigation.
The families of the passengers in the vehicle may need the results of the autopsies and the results of the official investigation as evidence if wrongful death claims against the driver’s estate are pursued. The first step in any successful claim is to establish that the victim’s death was due to the negligence of another, which requires evidence from these sources, among others. If negligence is proved, the court may consider an award of damages often seen in car accident cases.
Source: wgno.com, “3 people killed in Port Sulphur car crash overnight“, Nov. 26, 2015
