Depen Street, Gonzales
March 31, 2000
Mr. Harold Marchand
Ascension Parish President
208 East Railroad Av
Gonzales, La. 70737
Re: Notice of unsafe road conditions existing at Depen Street, Gonzales
Dear Sir:
It is my understanding that because of laws signed into effect by the governor, that the state and/or parish must be put on notice before they can be held liable for property damage, injury, or death due to safety discrepancies for a particular road.
That is the intent of this letter. Consider the Parish of Ascension put on notice as to the unsafe conditions existing on Depen Street in Gonzales using the pictures and descriptions attached.
I bring to your attention that an accident with serious bodily injury occurred here on December 24th, 1999 involving a postal worker delivering mail when her vehicle went into the drainage ditch pictured in the attached documents. It was reported to me that the postal worker required stitches for a head injury and received a broken leg.
It is my opinion that the lack of guard railings caused these serious injuries. It is also my opinion that guard railings would have eliminated bodily injury altogether and only minor damage to the vehicle.
Be advised, if there is any property damage, injury, or death after the date of this notice, I will do my utmost to bring this notice to the attention of those involved and their attorneys.
This letter and its attachments have been published to the web site http://inascension.com on the “Our Roads” page.
Sincerely
Chuck Le Mieux
Cc/fax to:
The Ascension Parish Council
Mr. Anthony Falterman Ascension Parish District Attorney
Mr. Ronnie Fairchild Ascension Parish Dept of Public Works
Mr. John (Juba) Diez Louisiana State Representative
Mr. Harry Robert Insurance Agent for Ascension Parish
Ms. Jean Payne of Gallagher Bassett Insurance Services
Mr. Jeff Wiley Ascension Parish Sheriff
The Advocates River Parish Office
The Gonzales Weekly
The Community Mirror
The Ascension Citizen
Ascension Parish TV
Channel Two News
Channel Two – Two On your Side
Channel 9
Channel 33
You can now keep track of the efforts put forth by the parish to remove the safety issues they have been put on notice of. Original pictures of the roads will now have the tag "click here for updates" if and when improvements have been made or follow ups sent. Clicking on this tag will take you to a new page with pictures of the work done, or not done, by the parish. You can then make up your mind whether their effort was satisfactory or not.
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Looking north entering from Highway 74
No guard rails |
| Looking north entering from highway 74
Sheer vertical drop off |
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Looking west going towards highway 74
Sheer vertical drop off |
| Looking east entering from highway 74
Sheer vertical drop off |
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Looking east entering from highway 74
Sheer vertical drop off |
| Looking north entering from highway 74
Sheer vertical drop off |
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Looking south going towards highway 74
Sheer vertical drop off |
