Southbound Lake Pontchartrain Causeway reopens after 9-hour closure due to fatal wreck

The southbound Lake Pontchartrain Causeway reopened around 1 a.m. Tuesday after a nine-hour closure caused by a fatal wreck, DOTD said.

The wreck happened around 3:30 p.m. Monday when authorities said a garbage truck crashed into a group of vehicles doing work near mile marker 20. A vehicle went into the water during the crash.

The St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office’s dive team recovered the driver’s body just after 5 p.m. Monday. The names of either drivers have

A Jefferson man who climbed out the window of his wrecked vehicle described some of the chaos on the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway morning after one of a series of crashes that involved dozens of vehicles on the foggy bridge.

UPDATE: Causeway Bridge reopens following chaotic morning of crashes

“I got smushed,” Paul Becnel said in an interview with The Times-Picayune Tuesday afternoon. “That’s about all I remember right

Becnel, 67, said he was on his way to an emergency room after the crash. His thumb and neck were hurting, he said.

Becnel was driving north on the Causeway from his home in Old Jefferson to work on a swimming pool. All of a sudden, he said, he was sandwiched between two cars, stuck inside his own vehicle. Battered and wrecked vehicles were all around him.

“There wasn’t no getting out of either door,” he said. “It looks like there was a mess everywhere.”

Becnel was among the many motorists trapped on the 24-mile spans after at least six different crashes scattered wreckage across the concrete and forced officials to close the Causeway. Multiple people were injured and transported to area hospitals, authorities said, but there have been no deaths reported.

Tricia LaFleur of Metairie said she saw and heard the crashes on the southbound span as she drove on the northbound span to her job

Becnel, 67, said he was on his way to an emergency room after the crash. His thumb and neck were hurting, he said.

Becnel was driving north on the Causeway from his home in Old Jefferson to work on a swimming pool. All of a sudden, he said, he was sandwiched between two cars, stuck inside his own vehicle. Battered and wrecked vehicles were all around him.

“There wasn’t no getting out of either door,” he said. “It looks like there was a mess everywhere.”

Becnel was among the many motorists trapped on the 24-mile spans after at least six different crashes scattered wreckage across the concrete and forced officials to close the Causeway. Multiple people were injured and transported to area hospitals, authorities said, but there have been no deaths reported.

Tricia LaFleur of Metairie said she saw and heard the crashes on the southbound span as she drove on the northbound span to her job