[StBernard] Life-Saver Award presented to St. Bernard sheriff's deputy

[Westley Annis]

Life-Saver Award presented to St. Bernard sheriff's deputy
Print NOLA Community Submission By NOLA Community Submission 
on September 11, 2014 at 8:24 AM, updated September 11, 2014 at 8:25 AM


St. Bernard Sheriff's Office Capt. Walter Dornan will remember last Jan. 24
for spending a freezing night dealing with the slippery, ice-covered Paris
Road Bridge in New Orleans and helping the more than 20 motorists - mostly
from St. Bernard Parish - who were trapped on it after traffic accidents.

Dornan, a veteran deputy who heads the department's Traffic Division and
lives in Chalmette, was honored Sept. 9 by the Kiwanis Club of St. Bernard
with its Life-Saver Award for his actions that night.

The Kiwanis Club gives the award four times a year, twice to a parish
sheriff's deputy and twice to firefighters.

The ceremony included Sheriff James Pohlmann and Maj. Adolph Kreger of the
Sheriff's Office, Dornan's wife, Brandy, Kiwanis Club President Shirley
Pechon and Sam Catalanotto, chairman of the Life-Saver Committee.

In presenting the award, Catalanotto said that more than 10 years ago the
Kiwanis Club started it as way to recognize first-responders in the parish
for the work they do to protect the public. "They are the first people
through a door'' to rescue someone in an emergency, he said. "They put their
lives on the line'' for St. Bernard.

Dornan thanked the group for the honor, saying, "I enjoy being a policeman''
and added, "It wasn't just me out there'' that night helping people. "It was
a joint effort.''

He had been off-duty the night of Jan. 24 when he heard a call come out
about icing and auto wrecks on the south-bound lanes of the Paris Road
Bridge, which while in New Orleans also connects St. Bernard to the eastern
part of the city.

"I knew it had to be our people from St. Bernard Parish involved,'' said
Dornan, who has been with the Sheriff's Office since the late 1980s and
graduated the FBI National Training Academy in 2010,

He was the first deputy on the scene at the bridge that night and decided
immediately to prevent other accidents by shutting down the north-bound
lanes, even though the bridge wasn't in his parish. He parked his vehicle
across its two lanes to prevent motorists from going up.

Pohlmann was notified the bridge had been blocked and other deputies were
called to the scene.

Pohlmann said at the ceremony, "I wasn't surprised Walter was the first on
the scene. He often is.'' Sheriff Pohlmann also went to the bridge and found
Dornan had "made sure the scene was safe. When I left he had it under
control.''

There were more than twenty vehicles piled up in accidents at the top of the
bridge on the south-bound lanes heading toward Chalmette.

"We got on the phone with parish government,'' Dornan said, to get road
crews out to sand over areas of the south-bound lanes and Fire Department
personnel out so an attempt could be made to reach motorists stuck in their
vehicles after being in the wrecks.

Units from New Orleans police weren't on the scene. The Fire Department got
food and water to people trapped in the vehicles.

"We had people injured up there in accidents,'' Dornan said. "It was pretty
slippery and I was in dress shoes.''

People going up the bridge to get to those injured had to hold on to the
middle area between the north- and south-bound lanes, he said.

"We took our time and walked up the bridge and checked on people. It was a
joint effort.''

Dornan said, "It took hours to get them out,'' because they couldn't be
brought down until the bridge was sanded.

Even St. Bernard school buses were used to take people home when they got
them down, he said.

The information in this article and picture were provided by the St. Bernard
Sheriff's Office Director of Public Information Steve Cannizaro.