A 50-year-old motorcyclist died early Saturday after a Harley-Davidson motorcycle slammed into the back of a Nissan Sentra that was stopped behind a disabled vehicle on U.S. Highway 90 Business near Tchoupitoulas Street, according to Louisiana State Police. The vehicle that had broken down in the roadway reportedly left before emergency responders arrived, leaving investigators to sort out a chain-reaction crash that left one rider dead on a stretch of highway that leads to the Crescent City Connection.
According to WGNO, LSP troopers responded just before 1 a.m. Saturday to the three-vehicle crash. Investigators say the disabled vehicle had been stopped in the left westbound lane of the bridge with its hazard lights on, and that it was gone by the time troopers reached the scene.
Per the same account, the Nissan Sentra had stopped behind that disabled vehicle when the Harley-Davidson motorcycle struck the back of the car at what LSP described as a fast rate of speed. The motorcyclist was wearing a helmet but suffered serious injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene. The Nissan driver, who was wearing a seatbelt, was not hurt.
Crash Timing and Vehicles Involved
LSP placed the crash just before 1 a.m. on U.S. Highway 90 Business near Tchoupitoulas Street and described it as involving a motorcycle, a Nissan Sentra and a disabled vehicle.
The investigation into Saturday's crash remains ongoing, and troopers collected toxicology samples as part of that process, the station notes. LSP Troop B is asking anyone with information about the disabled vehicle's location before the crash to call 504-471-2775.
Not the First Deadly Crash on the Span
Fatal wrecks tied to disabled vehicles on this corridor are not unheard of. In a separate incident, 22-year-old Logan York died after a multi-vehicle crash on the Crescent City Connection when his Toyota Camry collided with a Volvo S60, disabling both cars in the roadway, according to NOLA.com. York was struck by a Nissan Frontier while he was out of his vehicle attempting to flag down oncoming traffic, the outlet reported. He was taken to a hospital with severe injuries and later died, while the Nissan driver was restrained and uninjured.
Louisiana State Police have also documented other fatal wrecks on the bridge itself. Louisiana State Police said Troop B responded to a two-vehicle crash on the Crescent City Connection Bridge in September 2024 that also proved fatal. Nationally, federal crash data compiled by NHTSA's National Center for Statistics and Analysis found 6,335 motorcyclists were killed in traffic crashes in 2023, with roughly 82,564 more injured.
