New Orleans attack would’ve had ‘completely different outcome’ if steel barriers had been used, inventor says

An Archer barrier meant to prevent intentional vehicle ramming attacks stands next to a tribute for one of the 14 people killed in the New Year’s Day truck attack on New Orleans’ Bourbon Street. Photograph: Chris Graythen/Getty Images

The deadly New Year’s Day truck attack in New Orleans “would have had a completely different outcome” if city officials had put out 700lb (317kg) barriers that they bought years earlier and have a track record of preventing intentional vehicle rammings, the blockades’ inventor has told the Guardian.

But the city “did not have a full slate of accessories to help move and deploy” those steel Archer barriers quickly in the way they were designed to be – and how authorities elsewhere have managed to do it, Peter Whitford, the chief executive officer of the Meridian Rapid Defense Group, said in an interview.