New Orleans attack pushes Salem, Massachusetts to speed up plan to improve crowd safety
SALEM - The deadly attack in New Orleans has caused Salem, Massachusetts to speed up a plan to improve crowd safety.
Salem is known around the world for its Haunted Happenings experience during Halloween, but the city is also a historic site with tourists visiting throughout the year.
"Accelerate the project"
In a joint message on social media, the mayor and the police chief said they already had a plan to install more mechanical and fixed bollards and barriers to limit traffic by the end of the year, but the attack in New Orleans "means we will accelerate that project" and get it done before October.
"The starkest lesson seems to be that while New Orleans enacted very similar measures to Salem to keep people on the street safe, the assailant was able to simply drive around barriers, either because mechanical bollards were out of service or because he drove on the sidewalk," Mayor Dominick Pangallo and Police Chief Lucas Miller said in their statement.
"Another lesson is that while Mardi Gras would be the most likely event for an attack in New Orleans, any well-attended event is a target. Salem also has events throughout the year."
Salem security review
The mayor and chief said police will bring in more mobile vehicle barriers and specially trained officers in October. They also plan to have an outside security expert review their changes, which they said "will be an additional imposition on downtown residents and businesses."
"There's going to be impacts to convenience for sure," Mayor Pangallo told WBZ-TV Friday.
A worker at the Ugly Mug Diner on Washington Street said that she's noticed several close calls outside the restaurant.
"The bigger that Salem gets, the more people that are going to be here," employee Meagan Chalmers told WBZ. "But at the end of the day, we have all these awesome things in the city of Salem because of all these tourists."
More than one million people came to Salem in October 2024, according to the city. More than 87,000 visitors were there just on Halloween.
