Louisiana deputies say a driver led them on a chase down the interstate (Interstate 49, specifically) in the early morning hours. But there was just one caveat: he wasn’t even going in the right direction. The driver ended up careening down the highway the wrong way around 90 miles per hour. The deputies acted quickly and forced the wayward driver to a stop. Luckily, according to the DeSoto Parish Sheriff’s Office, no one was hurt. But, as you might imagine, the driver was arrested and is now facing a felony charge.
This incident didn’t start out with the driver having their foot to the floor going backwards. A patrol sergeant was headed to an overturned 18-wheeler on the interstate around 3:36 a.m. when she noticed a white sedan parked in the median. She asked a nearby deputy to look in on the driver, then continued to the crash. The release says that deputy found a man behind the wheel, undressed and appearing to be heavily impaired. A second deputy was called to the scene.
Then the man suddenly took off. He reportedly accelerated to about 90 miles per hour and drove north in the southbound lanes, straight into oncoming traffic. Deputies (understandably) called for the interstate to be shut down and took it upon themselves to go ahead and do so. They drove ahead to stop traffic, while other deputies tracked down the car on the loose. They managed to end up stopping it in the median before it could get any further.
But even after that, the man refused to leave his car. In fact, he reportedly decided to dance and yell while wearing only the clothes his mother gave him instead of following commands, a decision-making process that probably ultimately ended up in a harsher sentence for him in the end. But when state police and a sheriff’s K-9 unit got there, he started singing a different tune. The K-9 unit’s police dog was needed simply to remove this man from his car. He was then taken into custody and taken to a hospital for evaluation. He was identified as Tracarlos Audra McNeil, 49, from Houston, Texas. As soon as he received treatment, he was booked in on charges of aggravated flight from an officer and resisting an officer.
What Aggravated Flight Means in Louisiana
So, the driver decided he didn’t want to get out of the car. Fair enough (hey, the man can do what he wants). But more importantly, he decided he didn’t want to stop driving. That made him eligible for charges of aggravated flight when he had fled pursuit. Under state law, this statute applies when a suspect won’t stop for a marked patrol unit and behaves in ways that put lives at risk. With that in mind, the law is pretty clear about what’s considered as “endangering life”. One of the listed acts is driving against the flow of traffic, which driving the wrong way will do. Another is forcing other vehicles off the road. It’s a textbook example, actually.
He’s looking at some potentially serious time. A conviction for aggravated flight can bring up to 10 years at hard labor, after Louisiana raised the maximum in 2024, plus a fine – so not cheap on the wallet or the mind. The second charge, resisting an officer, is a lesser misdemeanor. All things that could have been avoided (or lessened entirely).
Why Wrong-Way Driving Is So Deadly
Wrong-way wrecks are rare, but they’re some of the deadliest crashes you’ll see. They tend to be head-on since one driver is going one way and the other a completely opposite one. When the cars clash at high speeds, there can be some seriously brutal impacts. In fact, the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety counts roughly 500 deaths a year from wrong-way crashes on highways, and that number always seems to be going up.
If you’re impaired while driving, avoiding driving in the wrong lane (or in the wrong direction) is one of the smartest things you can do, aside from getting out of the car and tossing your keys into the grass. You don’t want to contribute to the rising death tolls, and Uber and Lyft do exist. They may. be pricey, but they’re there for a reason.