For those unable to watch, what’s happened?
The city is completely unprepared to answer basic questions.
Yes, things are getting a bit off and now Kennedy is drinking from a party cup. His remarks were weird.
The suspect used a quiet car and drove on the sidewalk.
Now all the questions are all about driving on sidewalks. It is getting a bit ridiculous now.
With such advanced tactics, who could have prevented this?
A Senator Kennedy rambled about getting the truth out of the government (and threw a barb about the perceived political leanings of ABC News), the governor has shouted down reporters for asking supposedly repetitive questions, and everyone seems to want the reporters to stop asking about bollards.
I’ve been to that area hundreds of times. They aren’t explaining it well.
I think it’s less negligent by police and more someone hell bent on killing people.
I’ve been to events here in California and when they shut a street down you cannot get a car through. It doesn’t matter how determined you are. There are simply no car sized entrances left. Even humans have to weave a bit to get through.
According to city officials, there were police cars and police stationed at bourbon street. The driver went around the police cars and drove on the pavement to get to his target.
Now they are back to the anchors who said “that was some kind of press conference “.
What was his comment about Christmas? I didn’t catch all of that one.
That’s the part that makes no fucking sense.
The cars blocking the route are presumably there because they’re afraid of precisely this situation - a mad ramming attack.
But it didn’t occur to them that someone willing to go so far as to crash his car into a crowd would also be willing to drive on the sidewalk?
I get it. This exact scenario could have been prevented. But during big events there are 100s and 1,000s of people walking on canal st (yards away) and elsewhere. It’s just a mess of people walking everywhere.
If you want to run over people, a crowded NOLA is your place.
Late: I didn’t watch this part of the presser so not commenting on the “chaos” and whatnot. I turned it off when the Sugar Bowl was postponed.
Wolfpack,
I gave up when he started talking about gag reflexes…he is just weird. I did catch him demanding to know what news organizations the reporters were from.
All the people on cnn are now calling the presser chaotic.
My one trip to NOLA coincided with the Final Four, which was not in New Orleans but as you can imagine got lots of people in bars watching the games. I remember being struck as to how hard it was for a cab or other vehicle to get around the Quarter at night with all the people everywhere, including acting like the streets were a strict pedestrian zone.
Rep Troy Carter is saying 15 have died, and 30 are injured. From cnn.
A few newer pieces of information, from the AP:
The ABC anchor had a very hard time understanding why that never occurred to them, either.
According to reports from his family, one of those killed in the attack was Tiger Bech, age 27. Bech was a stockbroker from New York, and had played college football at Princeton, where he was an All-Ivy League kick returner; he was visiting New Orleans to celebrate the holidays.
With all the bowl games customarily scheduled for New Year’s Day, and with authorities seemingly sure that the murderous driver wasn’t acting alone, I wonder what precautions are being taken in cities other than New Orleans.
I know the Rose Bowl parade in Pasadena went off as planned, as it was televised. There’s also a Peach Bowl game at Atlanta, which I believe is in progress now.
Answering the factual concern, and you probably already know it, this is addressed in modern BEV/PHEV cars.
After several additional delays, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration issued its final ruling in February 2018. It requires hybrids and electric vehicles travelling at less than 18.6 mph (30 km/h) to emit warning sounds that pedestrians must be able to hear over background noises. The regulation requires full compliance in September 2020, but 50% of “quiet” vehicles must have the warning sounds by September 2019.[3]
NOTE: this does NOT address countless older BEV and PHEV vehicles (before 2020) that would lack such systems, so (back to the OP) there would be plenty of vehicles capable of carrying out such a stealth attack. And of course, the assumption is that vehicles in excess of 19 mph are making enough road noise to be audible.
FTR our new (since September) BHEV makes noticeably loud “spaceship” noises in the low speed range that I can hear (due to the unusual sound) probably a block away. But again, to @puzzlegal’s comment, until everyone is used to such noises, it may not be instinctive to get out of the way.
Just last week another killer driver killed five and injured scores in Magdeburg at a Christmas Market. The police had left an emergency entrance open for ambulances and fire trucks in case of need, and did not bother to block this with a car, so it would allow the emergency vehicles in if needed, but would prevent what happened. The police car was parked in a taxi stand a couple of meters away. I would ask: who gave what orders to the policemen on the street, how were those orders worded, how long was the chain of command that lead to those orders, and how dumb where the police officers on duty?
I suspect the answer to those questions, both in Magdeburg and in New Orleans, could make you angry.
I am still angry about Magdeburg, and if it has not been shown on US-TV what happened and how it happened it is sad. The terrorists copy each other, the police should learn that too.