The Scoop

Mark Ballard of the Baton Rouge Advocate obtained a Louisiana database that “pinpoints places on state roads that [the state] suspects are so defective and so poorly maintained that they cause crashes or, at least, contribute to wrecks.” The Abnormal Locations Report identifies more than 12,000 spots where more than 760 people died and another 140,000 were injured during the last 11 years, but until the newspaper sought the data under the state’s public records law, no one outside the government had seen it. “Lawyers routinely are refused access to the data. Citing the state’s public-records law, The Advocate obtained the raw data and processed it over several months. The report is intended to help state highway officials identify possible trouble spots that may need attention. The secrecy is aimed at encouraging states to collect information that, without legal protection, could be used against them in court.”