Marrero Bus Crash On West Bank Expressway Sends 15 Kids For Evaluation

A school bus carrying 46 children was involved in one of two crashes that tied up the elevated West Bank Expressway near MacArthur Boulevard in Marrero during Tuesday morning's commute, and 15 students were taken to an area medical center for evaluation, according to Louisiana State Police. Two lanes were blocked during peak commute hours as troopers worked the scene, backing up traffic well beyond the crash site.

Louisiana State Police confirmed they are investigating two separate crashes on the U.S. 90 Business expressway, though it was one of those collisions that involved the school bus, as reported by WDSU. State police have not identified the school the 46 children attended, and it remains unclear what caused either crash. The outlet's traffic reporter, Brandi B. Harris, noted the crashes happened Tuesday morning and that the affected lanes were later cleared, with traffic moving again.

The stretch of highway where the crashes happened sits near a busy interchange that connects elevated lanes and frontage roads across Marrero. As commuters waited out the backups, radio station WZRH-FM advised eastbound drivers to detour off the elevated expressway at ground level and re-enter at Manhattan Boulevard, since the multi-lane blockages near MacArthur Boulevard pushed backups all the way to Ames Boulevard.

A Corridor Already Under Scrutiny

U.S. Route 90 Business functions as the primary elevated east-west commuter route across Jefferson Parish's West Bank, according to background compiled from Wikipedia, transitioning from a surface boulevard into an elevated freeway in Marrero before crossing the Harvey Canal toward Gretna and New Orleans. The corridor has drawn state investment in recent years, with the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development completing a $34 million project at the nearby MacArthur Drive interchange to add new on/off ramps and modify frontage roads for heavy commuter volume.

The stretch has also seen serious incidents before. In June, Louisiana State Police Troop B investigated a fatal crash on the eastbound expressway near Garden Road in Marrero after a pedestrian trying to cross the high-speed corridor was struck by two vehicles, a case Hoodline covered in its piece on the unidentified pedestrian killed on the expressway. Crash investigations and traffic enforcement along state and federal highways in Jefferson Parish, including this corridor, fall under Troop B, based in Kenner and covering six parishes in the Greater New Orleans area.

Why School Buses Skip Seat Belts

Crashes involving school buses often prompt questions from parents about why large buses typically lack seat belts. Federal safety standards enforced by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration do not require seat belts on large school buses weighing over 10,000 pounds, relying instead on what is known as compartmentalization — closely spaced, energy-absorbing padded seat backs meant to cushion passengers during impact, according to a breakdown from Dudley DeBosier Injury Lawyers.

Louisiana passed a law in 1999 requiring seat belts on school buses, but the mandate was made contingent on state funding that was never appropriated, leaving it largely unimplemented statewide, per the National Conference of State Legislatures. Despite the absence of seat belts on most large buses, federal data cited by the same organization shows school buses remain among the safest vehicles on the road, with students roughly 70 times more likely to arrive safely at school by bus than in a personal car, and passenger fatalities nationally averaging six per year.

Louisiana also imposes specific qualification standards on the drivers of these vehicles. Under the Louisiana Department of Education's Bulletin 119 regulations, school bus operators must pass state-approved background checks, undergo regular driving record reviews, submit to mandatory drug screenings, and report any driving arrest to their employer within 24 hours.

A District Already Stretched Thin

Tuesday's crash lands against the backdrop of ongoing strain on Jefferson Parish's school transportation system. The district, which serves more than 47,000 students across the West and East Banks, logged nearly 2,000 missed-bus reports in a single month this spring amid driver shortages and route consolidation, as Hoodline detailed in its report on vanishing Jefferson Parish bus routes. Local districts have turned to recruitment incentives in an effort to keep routes staffed.

It remains unknown what the final medical status is for the 15 students taken for evaluation, and state police have not said whether driver impairment, weather, or sudden braking played a role in either crash. Similar morning school bus incidents have unfolded elsewhere in the region this year, including a May crash involving 25 students aboard a bus on Tchoupitoulas in New Orleans and an April collision in New Orleans East that drew police scrutiny during the morning commute.