Death toll lowered to 7 in Louisiana super fog highway crashes involving 160 vehicles

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Louisiana authorities have lowered the death toll from last week’s series of highway crashes blamed on a “super fog” of smoke from marsh fires and morning fog. State police now say seven people died in the Oct. 24 pileups involving about 160 vehicles on Interstate 55 near New Orleans. Investigators had once believed that eight died in the fiery crashes. But the number was revised downward Friday evening after further investigation involving the St. John the Baptist Parish Coroner’s Office, the Jefferson Parish Coroner’s Office, and the LSU Forensic Anthropology and Computer Enhancement Services Laboratory.