ATLANTA — Georgia fans are thrilled and a bit stressed to be returning to the Sugar Bowl.
Some can’t forget the tragedy that happened in the early hours of New Years Day, when a truck drove into a crowd in the French Quarter, killing 14 people.
Dozens of others were injured, including some Georgia students.
Channel 2’s Candace McCowan spoke with the attorney representing 35 of the victims and their families.
He says the city had made some big changes over the past year but knew ahead of time that the terror attack was a possibility and should’ve prevented it.
“If you unfortunately are hosting a large public event, you have to prepare that public event as though someone will try to do something like this,” said Michael Cerasa of Romanucci & Blandin.
Cerasa says this attack, when a man drove a truck down Bourbon Street in New Orleans killing 14 people and injuring 57 others, could’ve and should’ve been prevented.
The construction project that was going on to replace some of the security apparatus was not complete yet.
“Unfortunately, they were so focused on a security plan in place for the Super Bowl for this marquee event that they basically put NYEs and the Sugar Bowl on the back-burner and ignored it and allowed it to be an unsecure situation,” Cerasa said.
His firm is representing 35 of the victims and their families from the New Year’s Day attack, including Georgia student Elle Eisele, who was injured.
Video shows the added security. The National Guard is part of 800 law enforcement on duty.
There are barricades there that were not there when the attack happened New Year’s morning last year, and they’ve added pedestrian only guidelines on Bourbon Street Wednesday and Thursday.
Cerasa says his hope is that every city will put in security protocols before big events before tragedy strikes.
“You have to have an adequate security protocol in place,” he said.
For Georgia fans, they’re trusting Georgia will pull out the win and that the security is in place to keep them safe.
“There was no issue with security in our decision to not go this year,” Brad Wilson said. He’s not going because his wife is pregnant.
“I don’t anticipate anything happening,” Kevin Rubin said. That Georgia fan will be hoping on a plane in the morning to go back to New Orleans for this year’s Sugar Bowl.
Channel 2 Action News reached out to the parties that are being sued and heard back from the consulting firm Mott MacDonald who said, they’re “unable to comment on ongoing litigation.”
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