Three Southeastern Louisiana University students are dead after their car veered off U.S. Highway 51 and slammed into a concrete support column holding up the elevated section of Interstate 55 near Ponchatoula early Monday morning. The 2017 Honda Accord was headed north at a high rate of speed around 3:30 a.m. when it left the roadway on the on-ramp near the interstate, according to state troopers.
Louisiana State Police Troop L identified the victims as a 21-year-old driver from Hammond, a 20-year-old front-seat passenger from Slidell, and a 19-year-old rear passenger from New Orleans. Southeastern Louisiana University confirmed all three were students. Troopers told WDSU that the car was traveling at a high rate of speed before leaving the road. According to Louisiana State Police, the Accord veered off the road to the left before striking the column that supports the elevated stretch of I-55 passing over U.S. 51 in southern Tangipahoa Parish.
State troopers confirmed that the driver and the rear-middle passenger were both wearing seat belts, but the front-seat passenger was unrestrained at the time of impact. Emergency responders found the driver and front-seat passenger dead at the scene, while the rear passenger survived the initial impact and was rushed to a local hospital, where the student later died from life-threatening injuries, per the same LSP account carried by the student newspaper.
University Activates Grief Counseling
Southeastern Louisiana University confirmed all three young people who died were enrolled students and announced their passing in a campuswide notice. University President Dr. William Wainwright issued a Student Bereavement Notice calling each victim a “beloved and valued member of the Southeastern Family” and urging students to seek support, according to the school's student newspaper, The Lion's Roar.
The university's counseling center is available to assist students at (985) 549-3894 or in Room 303A of the Student Union Annex. Students who are off campus can reach the ViaLink crisis hotline at (833) 603-0008. The losses land on a campus that reported 15,570 students in fall 2025, its strongest overall enrollment in 13 years, according to Southeastern Louisiana University.
Investigation Continues as Toxicology Results Remain Pending
The crash remains under investigation, and toxicology results are still pending, per WDSU. Louisiana State Police policy requires a 60-day administrative waiting period after a fatal crash for requests for scene photographs.
State traffic safety officials note that excessive speed severely reduces a driver's reaction time, lengthens braking distance, and undercuts the protective value of seat belts and air bags in a collision — a dynamic investigators point to when examining fatal single-vehicle wrecks like this one. Troop L, based in Mandeville, patrols traffic safety across four Northshore parishes: Tangipahoa, St. Tammany, St. Helena, and Washington.
What Louisiana Law Requires of Every Passenger
Under Louisiana Revised Statute 32:295.1, seat belt use is a primary enforcement law, meaning every occupant of a moving vehicle — including those in the back seat — must be properly buckled in, according to Traffic Tickets NOLA. The law allows officers to pull over a vehicle solely because an occupant isn't wearing a seat belt, and a first offense carries a $50 fine.
What exactly caused the Accord to veer left off the roadway has not been publicly detailed, and the driver's identity has not been formally released pending the ongoing investigation. For now, Southeastern's campus is left to lean on its counseling resources as it mourns three students lost in a single, sudden crash just off the interstate that cuts through the heart of Tangipahoa Parish.
