3 deaths on Vermilion Parish highways in 2 weeks

In the last two weeks, three people have died on the highways of Vermilion Parish, in vehicle crashes.
Killed in recent vehicle accidents were:
• Sally Ann Boudreaux, who was killed while delivering mail south of Abbeville. She was hit head-on by a vehicle driven by Roland Campbell. According to State Police, Campbell‘s vehicle went off the right side of the road, he over corrected and then drove into the path of Boudreaux’s vehicle that was heading in the opposite direction.
She died a week later.
• Mary McMellon was killed on Hwy. 167 on Feb. 10. She was driving on the highway when she saw a trash can in the middle of her lane. She went to avoid it and hit the vehicle in the side lane, lost control, went off the road and hit the embankment of a canal. She died the next day in the hospital.
• On Feb. 12, Carl Johnson of Abbeville was killed on Hwy. 167 when the motorcycle he was driving was hit from behind by a vehicle. The State Police are still not 100 percent sure who was driving the vehicle that hit Johnson.
Speeding was not a factor in any of those accidents.
Louisiana State Police Trooper Brooks David said these three were not accidents. He explained these three people died in crashes.
“An accident is if a deer walks in front of your car and its unavoidable to hit it,” Trooper David explained. “These are crashes. People have control.”
Trooper David said many of today’s drivers are not paying enough attention of their surroundings, outside of the vehicle. Many accidents are occurring because the driver is paying more attention to distractions inside of their vehicle.
“A person is not paying attention and goes off the road and over corrects, causing an accident. They are more focused on what is inside the vehicle than outside the vehicle.”
Trooper David said people need to know everything that is going on around them. A good rule of thumb is that a driver should know what is happening 20 seconds in front of them, Trooper David said.
“People are too much in a hurry,” he said. “They are talking to a friend and not paying attention. That’s what is causing these crashes - people.”
The Louisiana State Police has noticed an increase in accidents over the last couple of years not because of all the distractions drivers are having to deal with on the outside of their vehicle. But it’s the distractions drivers are dealing with inside of their vehicle that may be causing the increase in accidents.
Twenty years ago drivers had to deal with talking family members and the radio as an inside distraction while they drove.
No longer.
Now it’s:
• talking on a cell phone
• answering a cell phone
• dialing a cell phone
• texting on a cell phone
• reading E-mail on cell phone
• eating, drinking
• playing with radio
• conversation
• child distractions