"We have learned the reason she was rushing was to see about her daughter who was involved in an accident in Lafayette. This is just terrible," Opelousas Police Chief Perry Gallow said.
Amanda Normand Scotty Smith wrote a similar comment on the facebook page of avoyellestoday. "She was trying to get to her daughter that got in a wreck this morning. So sad. Prayers go out to the family!"
Eva M. Rabalais, 50, of Dupont was killed when her SUV rolled several times after an I-49 collision Thursday morning at Opelousas.
Chief Gallow said the accident happened about 8:30 a.m. at the Harry Guilbeau exit on the city's south side.
Rabalais merged into the left lane and clipped the front of a Pontiac Grand Am car. Both drivers lost control, Gallow said. Rabalais' SUV ended up rolling into and coming to a rest on its side in the middle of the northbound lanes.
Rabalais' granddaugther, age 9, and daughter, 16, were in the SUV and were taken to a hospital with moderate injuries.
The driver of the other car, Victoria Buffington of Rayne, was pregnant, and Gallow said her injuries and were non-life threatening.
That accident closed both northbound lanes of the interstate for almost three hours, backing up traffic from Opelousas southward almost to Grand Coteau.

