Five men die in I-10 collision
A driver going the wrong way on Interstate 10 near LaPlace caused a head-on collision that killed himself and four other men instantly in a fiery explosion early Friday morning, State Police said.
Four friends had gone to New Orleans for the night to celebrate one of their 19th birthdays, family members said. They were headed back to Baton Rouge about 3 a.m. Friday when a Jeep Cherokee suddenly came careening at them, State Police said.
There was nothing the friends’ driver could do to escape the oncoming Jeep, State Trooper Evan Harrell said. At that section of the highway — just west of La. 3188 near LaPlace in St. John the Baptist Parish — the narrow road, elevated above the swamp below, has tall guardrails and no breakdown lanes.
State Police are now investigating why the man at fault, an unidentified male graduate student who was alone in the Jeep and also died in the crash, was driving the wrong way down the interstate. The flames that engulfed his 2000 Jeep Grand Cherokee also charred his body, as well as any potential evidence — such as alcohol or drugs — that could help investigators put the pieces together. His identity will be confirmed through dental records, Harrell said.
Lawayne Rice, 30, of Zachary, was the driver of the friends’ car, a 2010 Ford Focus. The front seat passenger was Terrell Sims, 27, of Slaughter. The right rear passenger was Louis Brown Jr., 19, of Baton Rouge. The left rear passenger was Dondray London, 20, of Baton Rouge.
About 2:55 a.m., police started receiving reports of the wrong-way Jeep on the interstate. Officers were dispatched, but when they arrived just minutes later, it was too late.
“We just couldn’t get out there soon enough,” Harrell said.
It is unclear how long and at what speed the graduate student had been driving the wrong way, Harrell said. The nearest exit from the west, the direction he was coming from, is 11 miles away. The elevated road has nowhere to pull over.
“The phone calls we’ve been getting suggest he’d been traveling quite a ways,” Harrell said.
Shortly after the initial crash, the Jeep was additionally struck by a westbound 2012 International 18-wheeler, driven by Ryan Firman, 61, of Cottonport, and a 1998 Saturn sedan, driven by Reginald Nutter, 30, of Baton Rouge.
Firman and Nutter received minor injuries, troopers said.
Westbound lanes of I-10 were closed for four hours following the crash, troopers said.
The four friends in the Ford left Baton Rouge about 9 p.m. Thursday night, said Kimberly London, the mother of Dondray London.
Dondray London, who was pursuing a rapping career under the nickname “Li’l Dray,” wanted to celebrate his best friend’s birthday in New Orleans.
“(Dondray) told me one of the guys had just turned 19 and had never been to New Orleans, so they wanted to go there and have a good time,” London said.
“He said he’d be back in the morning. He never made it back.”
The oldest of four children, Dondray London was a “very bright, smart, talented young man with a good future ahead of him,” his mother said.
Myronh Mckee, 23, said he will miss his brother and roommate, Terrell Sims. Sims worked in a Gonzales industrial plant and had a six-month-old son.
“He’s somebody I wake up to every day, talk to every day; that’s just not going to be there no more.
“Last night, I walked him outside and said goodbye,” Mckee said.