Was just reading, a reported eyewitness said the proper barriers weren't up:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news...081a1c7211e4c0#block-6775605b8f081a1c7211e4c0
The eyewitness, Jimmy Cothran, who just spoke to CNN and has lived in New Orleans for about 15 years, said he was surprised that metal barriers that are deployed to control crowds at each spring’s Mardi Gras celebrations were not deployed on Bourbon Street during the New Year’s Eve celebrations this year.
He said that only flimsy, orange plastic barriers “that you can push with one finger” were up, not the hydraulic posts that are raised during other large crowd events and, to his knowledge, would have stopped the truck driving the distance and speed it did along the street, running people over.
“Those barricades were not up…they never raised them, that’s how this guy was able to drive down Bourbon so quickly,” he said.
Cothran said he thought there would have been many fewer casualties if the metal barricades had been deployed “because this truck cannot get around those barricades,” he said.