News

Terrebonne, Louisiana D.A.R.E. deputy killed

while escorting floats to parade

Houma Courier- February 7, 2010

UPDATE:  The officers name has been released. 

D.A.R.E. Officer Captain Timothy Bergeron from the Terrebonne Parish Sheriff's Office in South Louisiana.

---A Terrebonne Parish deputy on a motorcycle escorting a Mardi Gras float was killed in a collision with a car this morning, authorities said.

The collision happened at about 7 a.m. on La. 311 and Krumbhaar Drive, which is near Polk Street.

State Police are at the scene investigating the collision. The deputy died at Terrebonne General Medical Center. The name of the deputy, said to be a veteran officer, has not yet been released pending notification of family members. Sheriff Vernon Bouregois, who had been in Miami to attend today's Super Bowl game, is returning to Louisiana to be with deputies and the officer's family.

According to preliminary accounts from Terrebonne officials, the deputy was escorting a float from the Houma-Terrebonne Civic Center parking lot to the Southland Mall, on his motorcycle. His blue lights, they said, were flashing and he was using his siren, what police call "running code."

The reports from the scene, which have not yet been confirmed with State Police, who are investigating the crash, are that the deputy was northbound on La. 311, coming around the float so that he could block traffic as it passed Polk Street.

The float stopped short of Krumbhaar, according to the Sheriff's Office account, where a woman driving an auto was waiting to make a left turn onto La. 311 so that she could travel south.

A float rider or driver -- officials were not sure which -- signaled the woman to cross in front of him, according to the preliminary information. The car allegedly made the left around the front of the float, entering the southbound 311 lane.

The motorcycle, officials said, was traveling around the float in the same lane and was struck head on. The driver of the car, who has not yet been identified, was reported uninjured physically.

Officers and paramedics, deputies said, worked frantically to keep him alive and he was transported to Terrebonne General Medical Center where lifesaving measures continued to no avail.

The Titans parade, which follows the Krewe of Hyacinthians on the traditional west Houma route, was scheduled to continue.

The Hyacinthians parade is set to begin at 11 a.m., an hour earlier than its regular time, due to the potential for conflict with today's Super Bowl celebrations when the New Orleans Saints meet the Indianapolis Colts.

State Police, who are conducting the investigation, will determine if anyone was at fault and take appropriate action from there, officials said. As of now no summonses have been issued and no arrests made.

Titan members gathered in the Southland Mall parking lot were still shaken by the crash as they prepared to roll this morning.

"We're saddened," said Taisha Robichaux, the krewe's president. "The police have always backed us. I send my condolences. They're a family."

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