Louisiana Road Closures Due to Cold, Improper Use of Shoulder, Hit and Run - Ask the Trooper

712 here at Capel it's Nathan and Bernie in the morning your friendly voice this morning we've got Brooks Davi joining us begin the day with a friendly voice don't look at me like that Bernie I I was agreeing with you I was just smiling oh that didn't look like a smile okay here's one there you go the big cheese smile you ready there you go big cheese like I just won the lottery we oh you know what I I I keep telling Tara you know one of these days we going to win the Powerball and we're going to we're going to send Coulson to private school we're going to pay off the mortgage on the house Etc move into a bigger better house with more storage she says you know you fool we actually got to play the Power Ball in order to win that's right and you have to have the Powerball and five other numbers just to point that out this is true this is true I'm but you know maybe we could be one of those you know every now and then they got those $1 million winners we were excited I mean things like we it got crazy at our house we won like $52 I thought my husband was pulling my leg I'm like $52 I was like that is funny that's way funny oh you almost breaking the computer was even more funny but $52 don't spend that all in one place Bernie dude don't spend it all in one place Brooks DOI joining us from Louisiana State Police Troop I good morning Brooks how are you I'm fine how are y'all doing just fine a little bit chilly uh you are you you know working the streets or anything you cold Brooks um nice warm Le let's talk about this cold weather for just a second here because you know as as people we tend to We tend to react almost with a knee-jerk response sometimes you know uh Schools they're closed in many areas today and perhaps they could have remained open today that's not for us to decide ultimately school system leaders made that decision because they thought they kept in mind what you know what they thought was best for the safety of the children in their system but you know we got a number of people who who are reacting well why did you close schools today why did you close schools today as from State a state police perspective when we have these types of school closures and things like and things of that nature what is it that you are trying to do in order to ensure that everybody on those roads remains safe well as State Police we our our main focus is safety so it has to be the focus of the superintendent of the different parishes also uh they don't have a lot of time to make these decisions a lot goes into those decisions uh school bus drivers have to be notified parents have to be notified teachers have to be notified um as troopers and police officers we're second guest all the time uh people have that luxury of second guest in our decisions just like with the school systems I'm not going to second guess a superintendent's decision on the safety of my child that comes number one uh as long as they're putting the safety of my child first it doesn't matter if they close the school one day or two days um he's making that decision on the best information that he has he or she has and that's the same thing State Police does um and the in the state government so as long as they're basing their decisions on the safety of the people that's all that matters to me well let's talk about some of that decision- making especially during winter weather like what we could have experienced last night but take North Louisiana for example I20 in particular they've shut down that stretch of Interstate for very good reason you take a look at the dod cameras and it's just like it's like what the Basin Bridge was during the ice apocalypse last year but when you decide and I know it's not just State Police who makes the decision uh DOD Works in concert with y'all sometimes when the decision is made to shut down a roadway I'm sure that there are a number of factors that go into making that decision before it's ultimately made that's correct we we uh we get with DOD there's a lot of things that go into it um the last thing we want to do is shut down an interstate system but when the safety of a of people come into play that's it's an automatic decision we don't want to see anybody lose their lives especially just for ice on the roadway we know it upsets a lot of people but our main focus is that person's safety so the minute we see that somebody's life is put in danger just for something as little as uh ice on a roadway we're going to shut it down uh when Once DOD inspects that road and they can't keep up with the uh the aggregant that they put on the roadway and it keeps freezing over we're going to shut it down absolutely now uh you know for those of us who live in the city of Lafayette I mean we're we're we're well aware of one of the great resources out there Lafayette 911 .org it lets you know about traffic crashes and other o other mobilizations of police and law enforcement and fire resources across the city is there some type of equivalent that drivers on the interstate system have access to so that they know ahead of time well I know that this part of the interstate is shut down or there's a crash here or or what have you anything like that there's a lot of things that are available to the public they might not be aware of uh nixel uh is one of them State Police is very uh up to date with that as soon as a road shuts down um the state police uh Facebook page um you can also go to www.511la.org uh DOD runs that that'll show you up to the up to- dat up to the minute road closures um if you look on there now uh it'll show you the shreport roadways Alexandria roadways and um Monroe roadways that are closed so um that is one of the best ones you can also download the uh mobile app so you can have it on your phone and it'll also talk to you you can set a radius that way you don't have to look at your phone when you're driving down the road it'll let you know if there's any type of road closures construction crashes anything like that and you don't even have to look at your phone it'll let you know wow that's really awesome yeah I know that one of the things that we we use a one quite often over here when we're updating people on traffic situations one of the great things that we use all the time is the ability to actually tap into the different traffic cameras set up along the interstate so you can see well where's the crash well it's it looks like it's you know tied up over here but where we can check down further along the interstate and actually see where the uh the origin of the crash is so again that's 511 la.org great resource for drivers to use uh when they're making travel plans coming up on 719 we're going to take our first break you're listening to ask the trooper on Nathan and Bernie in the morning 722 here at Capel it's Nathan and Bernie in the morning 2321 1542 if you'd like to join ask the trooper with State Police Troop I spokesperson Brooks Doby let's talk pet peeves driving pet peeves for just a second here because I made sure to you know make a note about this when I saw it the other day I was traveling on I was driving on 167 heading toward Mor I was going over to get my haircut okay this was uh Saturday two months ago this was Saturday over the weekend okay 67 of course it's a divided highway uh go ahead buddy what are you doing over there Brooks I thought we were friends I thought we were Pals I thought we were okay 167 obviously a divided highway somebody crosses over from the other side and is it can you do this they instead of turning into one of the travel Lanes they hurry up scoot over into the shoulder wait for me to pass and then get into the travel lane or in other cases they will pull over onto the shoulder use it as a sort of turning lane and then make their right turn no I mean you you can't use a shoulder for anything unless you're broken down really um the shoulder is there for a reason and that's for emergency P purposes only um that's it we don't even want you pulling over the shoulder to use the phone that's for Park lot or something to that nature um that's for emergency personnel and broken down Vehicles really so you can't even pull on the shoulder to talk on the phone well it's actually dangerous I mean if somebody loses control has a blowout or something of that nature and you get hit you know that can be some life threatening you know I learned something new every single day thank goodness huh let's talk about this case in New Iberia real quick the gentleman who was he was arrested he was he was hit but then he left the scene of the accident inent right is that is that the general story there story there there was a fatality in New Iberia where there was a hit and run yes so wh why was this person arrested well without going into detail in a particular case because it's still an active investigation however in a hit-and run crash Louisiana law states if you're involved in a motor vehicle crash you must stay at the scene you must give the driver of the other vehicle your name your insurance information and your vehicle information and if someone is injured you must either render Aid or call for Aid um if you do not do that you are in violation of uh revised Statute 14100 which is the hit and run really yes interesting stay put right there for just a second here 725 we've got Todd starn next 729 here at Capel it's Nathan and Bernie in the morning 2321 1542 if you'd like to join the conversation with us one last short segment of ask the trooper with Brooks Davi from State Police and really no not much time to really get into anything more but if you see something happening on the roadways that police need to know about what should you do 911 or is there something if it's not an emergency what what what should people do well if it's not an emergency uh you can D star LSP and it'll definitely go to the there's troop if it's an emergency you want to di 911 um and that way they can contact the local authorities uh whether it's the fire department whatever that you need ambulance if we're needed they will contact us or they will patch you through to us um if it's if you're broken down whatever you need a trooper out there they'll uh you can D store LSP and they'll come to the nearest troop uh sometimes it'll throw you to another troop but that troop will patch you through to us so you don't want to uh we don't like I say we don't like we like to assist anybody but sometimes people over abuse uh star LSP for things uh like road closures and asking about you know sometimes we get calls if roadways are open in Houston we would like to assist you if we can however our phones are always busy and they're always ringing with emergencies and if those death Sergeant get tied up we can't get to those emergencies as fast as we need to get to absolutely we asked that they use the websites uh star LSP I'm sorry uh www.lsp.org uh 511la.org and the mobile app U so if they would we ask that they use those and it'll cut a lot of time out for you also yeah I can imagine all right Brooks thank you so much for coming in this morning we'll see you again next week right now 7:30 we've got news weather and traffic next