A set of security barriers that were installed in 2017 to prevent terrorist attacks along Bourbon Street were being replaced when a driver barreled down the city’s most famous thoroughfare hours into the New Year on Wednesday, killing 10 and injuring dozens.
The removable stainless-steel bollards are designed to be securely locked at each crosswalk along Bourbon Street between Canal and St. Ann streets, according to Mayor LaToya Cantrell's administration. The attack occurred near the intersection of Bourbon and Iberville streets.
New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said the suspect drove “at a very fast pace” down Bourbon Street about 3:15 a.m., striking dozens, and then shot at first responders after crashing. Two officers were struck and are in stable condition. The suspect, too, was shot and has died. The FBI is investigating the incident as a terrorist attack.
The bollard project began in November and was scheduled to last three months. It involves removing and replacing sections of road to take out the existing bollards. A city press release on Tuesday night noted the project was ongoing, but did not provide details of work done thus far.
The old barriers never worked too well, said Bob Simms, who until recently oversaw security initiatives for the French Quarter Management District.
“They were very ineffective. The track was always full of crap; beads and doubloons and God knows what else. Not the best idea,” Simms said. “Eventually everybody realized the need to replace them. They’re in the process of doing that, but the new ones are not yet operational.”
Simms said the old barrier at the crosswalk of Canal and Bourbon streets was removed a few weeks ago. Equipment for a replacement is in place, he said.
"They're doing it in time for the Super Bowl," Simms said. "It's ironic in a way."
U.S. Rep. Troy Carter said the bollards would have prevented any vehicle from crossing in to Bourbon Street if they were operable. If not, the city should have have blocked access with heavy equipment, Carter said in an interview with WWL Louisiana.
"If they were not operable, that's unacceptable. And if they were not operable, there should have been a Plan B. There should have been a tow truck," Carter said.
City Council President Helena Moreno told WWL-TV that the council had been concerned about how long it has taken to reinstall the bollards. She said that council person Freddie King, whose district includes the French Quarter, has questioned the duration of the project several times. A city solicitation for the work, which closed on Sept. 20, envisioned a 70-day project with seven-day work weeks, weather permitting and excluding holidays.
Moreno pushed back on the notion that the absence of bollards was to blame, noting the perpetrator could have made it onto Bourbon Street another way.
“This person was determined to inflict pain and death and harm on Bourbon Street, and I think he would have done that any way he could,” Moreno said.
Simms said preventing the kind of carnage that took place early Wednesday was "exactly what it was built for."
The bollards were put in place before NBA All-Star Game in 2017. The plan was partly a reaction to the July 2016 mass murder in Nice, France, when a terrorist used a truck as a weapon to plow into a Bastille Day crowd, killing 86 and injuring hundreds more. A few months later a copycat killed 12 shoppers in a Berlin Christmas market.
Chad Calder contributed to this story.
