NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Sixteen New Orleans inmates being brought back to the city from a north Louisiana jail were aboard a bus involved in a Thursday morning accident. No serious injuries were reported.
East Carroll Parish, in northeast Louisiana on the Arkansas line, is holding hundreds of prisoners for New Orleans. Officials in New Orleans transferred prisoners there to reduce the local jail population amid efforts to beef up and train jail staffers while implementing court-ordered reforms.
The prisoners on the bus were being brought to New Orleans for court appearances and attorney-client visits.
State police and the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office said the accident happened early Thursday on Interstate 55 in Tangipahoa Parish, northwest of New Orleans. Two correctional officers from East Carroll Parish also were aboard.
Louisiana State Police Trooper Dustin Dwight said the bus ran into the back of another vehicle. The accident was under investigation and no citations had been issued as of Thursday afternoon, he said.
Dwight said some people aboard the bus suffered minor injuries. A Sheriff’s Office news release said no inmate or officer required hospitalization but a medical team was standing by in New Orleans to examine them upon their arrival. A second bus was dispatched from East Carroll to pick them up.
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