New Orleans Terror Attack Lawsuit Targets Engineer Mott MacDonald, Contractor and City
Steel barriers capable or stopping an SUV were put into place after Bourbon Street in New Orleans was re-opened following the New Year's morning truck attack that killed 14 people.
Photo: Yomiuri Shimbun via AP Images
Seven victims who survived the New Year's morning terrorist truck attack on Bourbon Street in New Orleans have filed a negligence lawsuit in state court, in that city, blaming city officials, engineer Mott MacDonald and a contractor for the deaths.
The attacker, asserting allegiance to ISIS, killed 14 people including the son of one of the plaintiffs, and injured numerous others.
At the time, the city's Dept. of Public Works was in the midst of a local street reconstruction project that also involved "replacing old bollards with new removable stainless-steel bollards and sidewalk repairs at various locations."
Mott MacDonald had in 2012 acquired local firm Lambert Engineers, which had already won the contract to design street improvements.
The lawsuit also named as a defendant Hard Rock Construction Co. LLC, a Harvey, La.-based heavy construction contractor.
Exactly what decisions were made is far from clear related to securing the French Quarter and Bourbon Street from vehicles while the project was going on. Neither U.K.-based Mott MacDonald nor Hard Rock Construction could immediately be reached for comment.
The lawsuit cites the rising use of truck terrorist attacks in major cities starting in 2016, and quotes from a report on terrorism threats prepared for the city by AECOM. That report noted that the "French Quarter is often densely packed with pedestrians and represents an area where a mass casualty incident could occur."
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The lawsuit claims that during the multi-phased street reconstruction project, Mott MacDonald failed to advise city officials to protect the street with bollards or barriers capable of stopping a Ford F-150 like the one used in the attack. The lawsuit also blames Hard Rock Construction for not temporarily securing an area in the French Quarter, where it had begun work, with vehicle-resistant bollards or barriers.
Mott MacDonald has in the past specified one type of mobile bollard system for some streets, the plaintiffs claim, but then selected a less costly and less-effective product that could resist a vehicle moving faster than 12 mph.
As with many negligence lawsuits, the claims against Mott MacDonald say the city officials, also named as defendants, reasonably relied on their engineering consultant as an expert. But the lawsuit doesn't say what influence city officials had on the decisions about street security and the sequence of work. And the lawsuit doesn't explain why the city didn't employ other heavy duty street bollards already in the city's possession, and mentioned in the lawsuit, at that part of Bourbon Street this past New Year's.
