{"id":705648,"date":"2026-04-05T03:20:31","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T03:20:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/705648\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T03:20:31","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T03:20:31","slug":"driver-smashes-into-crowd-at-louisiana-lao-new-year-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/705648\/","title":{"rendered":"Driver smashes into crowd at Louisiana Lao New Year Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>More than a dozen people were injured when a car plowed through a crowd gathered for a cultural parade and festival in <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/tag\/louisiana\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">New \u200bIberia, Louisiana<\/a> Saturday, according to cops and local reports.<\/p>\n<p>At least 15 people were wounded, including some in critical condition, after a drunk driver barreled through parade-goers at the Lao New Year Festival at around 2:30 p.m., according to the Iberia Parish Sheriff\u2019s Office and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kadn.com\/news\/crime\/20-injured-after-alleged-drunk-driver-crashes-into-new-iberia-parade\/article_903c1584-150d-4b78-8130-69584c48b5a3.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">News15.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Several pedestrians were directly struck by the car and two of the victims were airlifted to the hospital, Acadian \u200bAmbulance said on X.<\/p>\n<p>A suspect, 57-year-old Todd Landry, was arrested after the incident. Facebook\/Bubblez Laila<\/p>\n<p>The alleged drunk driver was arrested at the scene. Facebook\/Bubblez Laila<\/p>\n<p>Officers took the driver, 57-year-old Todd Landry, into custody following the terrifying crash, which happened near the corner of Savannakhet Street and Melancon Road, Louisiana State Police said.<\/p>\n<p>Landry, of Jeanerette, showed signs of impairment and blew a blood-alcohol level of 0.137% \u2014 well above the legal limit of 0.08%, according to state police.<\/p>\n<p>He was arrested and booked into the Iberia Parish jail on charges of driving while impaired, careless operation, open container and 18 counts of first-degree negligent injuring, cops said. <\/p>\n<p>The crash is not believed to have been an intentional act, the sheriff\u2019s office added.<\/p>\n<p>The parade was part of an annual three-day festival held in Lanexang Village each Easter weekend to celebrate the Lao New Year. The event \u2014 the largest of its kind in the US \u2014 has been held since the 1980s when it began as a small block party catering to the area\u2019s growing Lao community,<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nola.com\/acadiana\/news\/crime_police\/lao-festival-crash-arrest\/article_5a122422-caf3-593f-8a48-d4d51637d4aa.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\"> according to NOLA<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>At least 15 people were wounded. X\/BLT21_<\/p>\n<p>Festival organizers canceled the evening\u2019s planned music programs and concerts, as well as alcohol sales. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe \u200bare profoundly \u200bsaddened by \u2060the news of the incident near the festival grounds,\u201d the organizers \u200bsaid on Facebook. \u201cWe are praying for the \u200bvictims \u2060and for their families during this difficult time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Elected officials also offered support for the victims of the crash. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cSharon and I are praying for all those affected, and are grateful for the first responders who have responded to the scene,\u201d Gov. Jeff Landry <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/LAGovJeffLandry\/status\/2040531473116053508\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">wrote on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than a dozen people were injured when a car plowed through a crowd gathered for a cultural&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":705649,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,5303,2104,353,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,67,586,132,5230,68,1154,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-705648","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-car-crashes","10":"tag-festivals","11":"tag-louisiana","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-city","14":"tag-newyork","15":"tag-newyorkcity","16":"tag-ny","17":"tag-nyc","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-united-states-of-america","20":"tag-unitedstates","21":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","22":"tag-us","23":"tag-us-news","24":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116349948738411317","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705648","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=705648"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705648\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/705649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=705648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=705648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=705648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}