A Kervin Law LLC review of every fatal crash Louisiana State Police Troop L publicly reported in St. Tammany Parish, March 2025 through August 2026.
St. Tammany Parish is the fourth-most populous parish in Louisiana — 264,570 residents at the 2020 census, an estimated 279,108 by 2025, spread across 846 square miles. Three interstates cross it. So does a network of two-lane state highways carrying traffic they were never designed for.
We read every fatal crash release Troop L issued for this parish over an 18-month period and pulled out what actually killed people. The answer is not what most drivers would guess. It is not high-speed interstate pileups. It is vehicles slowing down to turn.
What we did
Louisiana State Police Troop L issues a public news release for fatal crashes it investigates in St. Tammany, Tangipahoa, Washington, and St. Helena Parishes. We collected every St. Tammany release from March 2025 through August 2026 and coded each one for roadway, location, crash mechanism, restraint use, and vehicle type.
What this covers. Eleven fatal crashes with sufficient published detail to code reliably.
What it does not cover, and this matters. Troop L investigates crashes on state highways and interstates. Crashes inside Slidell, Covington, Mandeville, and other municipalities are typically worked by local police departments and never generate an LSP release. This is a study of fatal crashes on the parish’s highway network, not a parish-wide fatality count. It also excludes non-fatal injury crashes entirely, which are far more numerous.
Why this source. These are public press releases issued by the investigating agency. Louisiana’s more detailed state crash warehouse carries a federal designation under 23 U.S.C. § 407 that makes it exempt from discovery and inadmissible in court, and the state’s portal asks users to contact the LADOTD Traffic Safety Office before releasing information from it. We built this on material with no such restriction. Every crash below can be verified against the original release at lsp.org.
The finding: turning movements, not speed
Four of the eleven fatal crashes happened because a vehicle was slowing or turning off a highway carrying 55 mph traffic.
- A car on LA-437 near South Fitzmorris Road in Covington began a left turn onto the side road and was struck on the passenger side by an oncoming vehicle. A restrained 53-year-old passenger died. Everyone else in both vehicles survived with non-life-threatening injuries.
- A car on LA-3241 in Lacombe entered the intersection with LA-36 into the path of westbound traffic, was struck, spun into the eastbound lane, and was struck a second time. The unrestrained 39-year-old driver died at the scene. Another driver sustained life-threatening injuries.
- A pickup on US-190 east of LA-1077 in Covington was turning right into a private drive when it collided with a 26-year-old riding an off-road motorcycle east on the shoulder. The rider was killed.
- A vehicle on LA-434 near Krentel Road was slowing to turn into a private parking lot when a head-on collision occurred. An unrestrained 74-year-old passenger from Slidell died.
The structural problem is the same in all four: a driver decelerating to leave a highway, on a road with no turn lane, no signal, and traffic behind and oncoming at highway speed. Private driveways and unsignalized side roads on state highways are where this parish kills people.
Second finding: secondary crashes on the interstates
Two of the eleven deaths happened in a second or third collision at the site of an earlier one.
On March 7, 2025, Troop L investigated two crashes minutes apart in the same stretch of I-59 northbound near the I-12 interchange in Slidell. A pickup slowed and attempted an illegal turn through an interstate crossover and was struck from behind by an SUV. The SUV’s 26-year-old driver, from Slidell, was out of her vehicle when she was killed in the second crash. A child passenger, properly restrained, sustained minor injuries.
On May 22, 2026, three separate crashes occurred in the same general location on I-10. A 63-year-old woman from Ponchatoula was killed on foot at the scene. One driver tested .000 on a breath sample; impairment was not suspected.
Both follow the same script: a crash happens, someone gets out of a vehicle in a live traffic lane, and the second impact is the fatal one. If your vehicle is drivable after a collision on an interstate, moving it out of the travel lanes is the single most protective thing you can do.
Third finding: restraint use
At least four of the eleven crashes involved an unrestrained occupant who died — on LA-36 at Barbee Road near Abita Springs, on LA-36 at LA-3241 in Lacombe, on LA-434 near Krentel Road, and on US-190 near Rapatel Street.
In several crashes in this set, restrained occupants in the same vehicle or the striking vehicle survived with minor injuries while an unrestrained occupant did not. LSP flags restraint status in the headline of its releases often enough that it is clearly the pattern troopers see.
This has changed legally, and most people do not know it. See below.
The corridors that repeat
Across eighteen months, the same roads keep appearing:
- US-190 — two fatal crashes (May 2026 near LA-1077; August 2026 near Rapatel Street)
- LA-36 — two fatal crashes (June 2025 at Barbee Road; August 2025 at LA-3241)
- I-10 / I-59 near the I-12 interchange — three fatal crashes, all involving either a person outside a vehicle or a two-wheeled vehicle
- The northern parish two-lanes — LA-25 near Sweet Olive Lane, where a van crossed the centerline and killed an oncoming driver from Folsom; LA-450 a mile north of LA-25, where a pickup left the road and struck a tree, killing an 89-year-old restrained passenger
A separate 2026 analysis of federal FARS fatality data covering 2019 through 2023 identified a 10-mile stretch of I-12 running from Big Branch Bayou near LA-434 east to I-59 as one of the nine deadliest highway segments in Louisiana, with 13 fatal crashes over that period. That corridor overlaps the eastern cluster in our own data.
The full record
| Date | Roadway | Area | Mechanism | Restraint noted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 7, 2025 | I-59 NB near I-12 | Slidell | Secondary crash; person on foot | Child passenger restrained |
| May 26, 2025 | LA-437 near S. Fitzmorris Rd | Covington | Left turn across oncoming traffic | Restrained |
| Jun 2, 2025 | LA-36 at Barbee Rd | Abita Springs | Two-vehicle | Unrestrained |
| Aug 2, 2025 | LA-36 at LA-3241 | Lacombe | Failure to yield; three-vehicle | Unrestrained |
| Oct 27, 2025 | LA-25 near Sweet Olive Ln | Covington | Crossed centerline; head-on | Restrained |
| Dec 11, 2025 | I-10 near LA-433 | Slidell | Motorcycle lane-change conflict | Helmeted |
| May 15, 2026 | US-190 east of LA-1077 | Covington | Right turn into private drive; off-road motorcycle on shoulder | — |
| May 22, 2026 | I-10 | St. Tammany | Third crash at same location; person on foot | — |
| Jun 1, 2026 | LA-450 north of LA-25 | Northern parish | Ran off road; struck tree | Restrained |
| Jul 27, 2026 | LA-434 near Krentel Rd | Lacombe area | Head-on; vehicle turning into private lot | Unrestrained |
| Aug 6, 2026 | US-190 near Rapatel St | Mandeville area | Head-on | Unrestrained |
Every entry is drawn from a public Louisiana State Police Troop L news release. Troopers are still seeking a witness or dashcam footage in the August 6, 2026 crash and ask anyone with information to call Troop L at (985) 893-6250.
Why 2026 changed what these crashes are worth
Three changes in Louisiana law altered the value of a St. Tammany crash claim more than any change in traffic patterns did.
The 51% bar. Act 15 of 2025 rewrote La. Civ. Code art. 2323 effective January 1, 2026. Louisiana used pure comparative fault for decades — a plaintiff 90% at fault could still recover 10%. For causes of action arising on or after January 1, 2026, a person found 51% or more at fault recovers nothing at all. Below that threshold, damages are reduced in proportion to fault. This is why insurers now push so hard to assign a majority of blame, and why evidence gathered in the first two weeks matters more than it ever has. In a left-turn or failure-to-yield crash — the most common fatal mechanism in this data — that fight is the whole case.
Direct action is mostly gone. Act 275 of 2024 removed the general right to name the at-fault driver’s liability insurer as a defendant, effective August 1, 2024. La. R.S. 22:1269 survives, but a direct action is now the exception — available in defined circumstances like insolvency, inability to serve the insured, death of the insured, a claim against a family member, an uninsured motorist claim, or where the insurer has denied coverage or reserved rights.
Seat belt evidence is admissible. La. R.S. 32:295.1(E) used to bar evidence of seat belt non-use in a civil case. That subsection was repealed effective January 1, 2021. Given how consistently restraint status shows up in this parish’s fatal crash record, this is not a small change.
Related: Louisiana’s New 51% Comparative Fault Rule · Troop L crash statistics
For reporters and researchers
Every crash in the table above is verifiable against the original Louisiana State Police Troop L release. You are welcome to use this analysis; a link back is appreciated.
David Kervin is available to discuss the methodology or the findings. Contact: (985) 888-0640.
We update this analysis as new releases are issued.
If you were injured in one of these crashes
Kervin Law LLC is a plaintiff-only personal injury firm in Folsom, Louisiana. We handle car, truck, and fatal-crash claims across St. Tammany, Tangipahoa, and Washington Parishes. Consultations are free and there is no fee unless we win.
Call (985) 888-0640 or request a free case review.
Nearby: Covington · Mandeville · Slidell · Madisonville · Abita Springs · Folsom
Reviewed by David Kervin, attorney licensed in Louisiana. Last updated September 10, 2026.
This analysis is provided for general informational purposes and is not legal advice. Crash details are drawn from preliminary investigation findings published by Louisiana State Police and may be revised as investigations conclude. Past results do not guarantee similar outcomes.
Reviewed by David Kervin, attorney licensed in Louisiana · Last updated
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