Months before the deadly New Year’s Day vehicle attack in New Orleans, the city said the assailant in a crew cab Ford F-150 similar to the one that killed 14 people and injured dozens more. modeled a scenario in which the robot enters various intersections on Bourbon Street. .
Engineers found such pickup trucks could enter crowded tourist areas at speeds of 12 to 120 miles per hour, according to an April engineering analysis commissioned by the city and city bid documents reviewed by Reuters. He said city officials are installing new road barriers that can only withstand 16 mph impacts. .
These new fencing, or bollards, were not yet installed on Bourbon Street on New Year’s Day, but are expected to be installed in time for the NFL Super Bowl in New Orleans on February 9th. Previously unreported documents reviewed by Reuters revealed that the system is unable to prevent vehicle attacks at medium to high speeds.
When choosing a new bollard system, the city prioritized ease of operation over crash safety because of chronic problems with the operation of the old bollard system, according to documents and a person with direct knowledge of the city’s Bourbon Street safety plan. It is said that priority was given to Unlike some pedestrian-only zones, such as New York City’s Times Square, Bourbon Street is open to general vehicle traffic most of the day, and city officials close portions of it each night to surrounding streets. Must be isolated from the road.
Since the New Year’s Day attack, New Orleans city officials have faced intense scrutiny over whether crews left residents vulnerable as they removed old bollards and installed new ones. But neither barrier system would have been able to prevent the deadly attack, according to sources and a review of city documents by Reuters.
The city currently has no vehicle stops on Canal Street and Bourbon Street, where the suspect entered. Instead, on New Year’s Day, the road was blocked by a police SUV pulling alongside.
Shamsud Din Jabbar, a retired military officer from Texas, exploited another weakness in the city’s security plan. He pushed his 7-foot-wide pickup truck onto the 8-foot-wide sidewalk between the drugstore wall and a police car, plowing through it with his foot on the gas. At about 3:15 a.m., I made my way through the crowd.
Jabbar died after the attack in a gunfight with police. Federal authorities said he had become radicalized and had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group.
In an engineering study conducted to help select the new barrier system, the city’s security modeling only considered scenarios where vehicles enter Bourbon Street from the roadway rather than the sidewalk. Most blocks on Bourbon Street’s narrow sidewalks are inaccessible to vehicles because of existing barriers such as fire hydrants, balconies and light poles, officials said.
The official said city officials would face “tough meetings” about the continued vulnerability of the new bollards currently in place, but “nothing would have changed” on New Year’s Day.
New Orleans city officials did not respond to detailed questions from Reuters about security plans for Bourbon Street or the decision to choose fencing with a 16 mph crash safety standard.
A person with direct knowledge of city safety planning said protecting against vehicle attacks while maintaining access to everyday vehicular and pedestrian traffic, including accessible sidewalks for people with disabilities, is a challenge all cities face. emphasized the difficulties faced.
Officials said officials selected a bollard system from a company called 1-800-Bollards Inc. that can withstand 16 mph impacts. The city’s bid documents issued in August and September sought an installer for the system, calling it an “RCS8040 S10 removable bollard.” The city’s April technical analysis describes the same product as having an “S10” crash rating and being able to stop a 5,000-pound vehicle traveling at 16 miles per hour.
“Crash ratings are specified as S10 (10 mph impact), S20 (20 mph impact), and S30 (30 mph impact),” the engineering analysis states.
The official said that even a barrier that can withstand 16 mph impacts could slow down or seriously damage vehicles traveling at higher speeds.
A representative for 1-800-Bollards Inc. declined to comment.
Two of the Bourbon Street attack scenarios modeled by city-contracted engineers involved speeding and then entering the street in a straight line without turning.
The study found that a 2015 F-150 could reach 80 mph by accelerating from a stoplight and across Canal Street, a wide thoroughfare with streetcar tracks in the median. The same vehicle could enter the section of Bourbon Street protected by bollards from the other side and crash at 110 mph.
Jabbar was driving a more dangerous weapon than the truck used in the report’s scenario: a newer F-150 Lightning, a faster, heavier, and quieter electric vehicle.
During major events such as New Year’s and Mardi Gras, the city’s security plan calls for large vehicles to be parked at the end of Bourbon Street, where they are most vulnerable to attack by high-speed vehicles, the official said. However, the official said such measures are not practical on a daily basis in areas with a high concentration of tourists.
Officials say city officials have been considering the best way to replace New Orleans’ crippled street fencing system to protect against vehicle attacks since at least 2020.
The city initially chose a system called the Heald HT2-Matador, which allows workers to move the fencing into place along road tracks, according to city documents. The official told Reuters the system was chosen primarily because it had already been bid and priced by the federal government, allowing the city to implement it more quickly.
However, under the rigors of Bourbon Street, the fencing proved problematic, with debris such as Mardi Gras beaded necklaces clogging the tracks, often rendering it inoperable.
Sources and an April 2024 report from engineering firm Mott MacDonald, which was hired by the city to evaluate dozens of bollards, said these issues led the city to consider crash safety when choosing a new system. The company prioritized factors such as ease of operation and maintenance over performance evaluation. option.
Representatives for Mott MacDonald had no comment.
The city chose the 1-800-Bollards Inc system, which uses relatively lightweight stainless steel columns rated at 16 miles per hour that are dropped into street foundations, in part because one city employee can Officials said this was because bollards could be installed and removed. Engineering analysis shows that these posts weigh 44 pounds, while a similar 20 mph bollard weighs 86 pounds.
The main concern of city officials and representatives of French Quarter residents and businesses was to protect pedestrians from slow-moving vehicles turning onto Bourbon from side streets, the person said.
In this report, we have scored different systems based on different criteria. The system the city ultimately selected had its “safety rating” score reduced because it “did not meet specified project requirements.”
The bollard received high praise for its low weight and cost.
