{"id":17717,"date":"2026-04-05T02:34:02","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T01:34:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/?p=17717"},"modified":"2026-04-05T02:34:02","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T01:34:02","slug":"car-slams-into-louisiana-lao-new-year-parade-injuring-about-15-people-health-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/?p=17717","title":{"rendered":"Car slams into Louisiana Lao New Year parade, injuring about 15 people | Health News"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Authorities in New Iberia, Louisiana, have said the incident does not appear to be an intentional car-ramming.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Published On 4 Apr 2026<\/span>4 Apr 2026<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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An estimated 15 people have been injured in Louisiana\u2019s Iberia Parish, after a car struck participants at a Lao New Year parade in the United States.<\/p>\n

According to a statement from the Iberia Parish Sheriff\u2019s Office on Saturday, some attendees were seriously injured.<\/p>\n

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\u201cBased on the preliminary investigation, this does not appear to be an intentional act,\u201d said Rebecca Melancon, a sheriff\u2019s office spokesperson.<\/p>\n

The Acadian Ambulance company confirmed<\/a> on social media that it had taken 11 people to the hospital using ground transport, and another two victims were airlifted to seek urgent care. Ten ambulances and two medical helicopters were deployed to the scene.<\/p>\n

The incident took place in New Iberia, a city of more than 28,000 in Iberia Parish, some 34km (21 miles) south of Lafayette, Louisiana. It is situated roughly 214km (130 miles) west of New Orleans.<\/p>\n

The Louisiana Lao New Year Festival parade is an annual tradition on Easter weekend in the parish, and the celebration features live music, food vendors and a beauty pageant.<\/p>\n

In the aftermath of the car crash, the festival issued a statement on social media, saying that all of its security resources had been surged to the scene.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are profoundly saddened by the news of the incident near the festival grounds,\u201d festival organisers wrote. \u201cWe are awaiting additional details from authorities as they become available.\u201d<\/p>\n

They added that Saturday\u2019s musical events were cancelled, though vendors were permitted to stay open until 9pm local time (2:00am GMT, Sunday).<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are praying for the victims and for their families during this difficult time,\u201d the organisers wrote. \u201cAs of now, and if security resources are restored for tomorrow (Sunday) we will reopen only the religious services of the festival, and vendors will stay open.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Lao New Year is a tradition typically associated with Buddhism, and it takes place each year in April, as the dry heat in Laos gives way to the wet monsoon season.<\/p>\n

Louisiana is home to a small but vibrant Lao community. In New Iberia, one neighbourhood is called Lanexang Village \u2014 roughly translated to the \u201cmillion elephants\u201d village \u2014 and it is reportedly home to hundreds of Lao people.<\/p>\n

Many arrived as a result of the Vietnam War, which bled into Laos, with communist and US-backed forces clashing over the course of nearly 16 years.<\/p>\n

The Pathet Lao, a communist movement, ultimately took over the country in 1975, ending Laos\u2019s monarchy. Hundreds of thousands of people fled in the aftermath, with many resettling in countries like Thailand and the US.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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Authorities in New Iberia, Louisiana, have said the incident does not appear to be an intentional car-ramming. Published On 4 Apr 20264 Apr 2026 An estimated 15 people have been injured in Louisiana\u2019s Iberia Parish, after a car struck participants at a Lao New Year parade in the United States. According to a statement from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17718,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-us-canada-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17717\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}