Petra Garcia wonders if she’ll die next.

After moving into her trailer on the corner of Louisiana Highway 25 and River Road five years ago, she’s witnessed at least five accidents, including one that sent a car careening into her yard that stopped just a few feet short of ramming into her home.

In the meantime, she’s replaced four mailboxes.

Pictured are the GMC Sierra truck and 18-wheeler wrecked on the side of Louisiana Highway 25. (Staff Photo by Matthew Penix)

But no wreck was more shocking than a 2:40 p.m. accident Tuesday that left Covington’s William J. Guarino, 79, dead when he pulled his GMC Sierra extended cab truck onto La. 25 from River Road. An 18-wheeler, driven by Michael Gordon of Kenner and headed northbound, “t-boned” the truck, killing Guarino instantly.

“They need to do something,” Garcia said, glancing at Guarino’s body wrapped in a blanket in her front yard. “It’s been a killer. It’s getting ridiculous.”

The intersection has no stoplight and one stop sign on River Road leading onto La. 25, just north of Covington. And it’s unclear if the state Department of Transportation and Development plans to install a light at the intersection. DOTD did not return calls seeking comment.

But with a minimum of four accidents in five years at the intersection, the need “doesn’t constitute a hazardous area,” State Police Troop L spokesman Louis Calato said.

“It’s a very unfortunate accident, but I don’t see the intersection being a dangerous spot,” Trooper Calato said.

Most accidents occur at the crossroad when people lurch onto La. 25 from River Road in front of oncoming traffic and are hit from behind, he said.

On Tuesday, the case was similar.

Guarino’s GMC pickup jetted out from River Road and into the path of the 18-wheel Freightliner, which struck the truck in the driver’s side door. What was left was mangled grey steel, the cab pushed several feet inward. It was unavoidable, Calato said.

Gordon, the 18-wheeler’s driver, was transported by Acadian Ambulance to St. Tammany Parish Hospital for treatment of moderate injuries, Calato said.

Alcohol use is not suspected, but a blood sample was obtained for analysis.

Gordon was wearing his seatbelt.

Several cars away, Keith Bergeron watched the accident unfold.

A former Covington area resident now living in California, Bergeron was visiting his family when he saw the collision that sent both vehicles careening into a ditch. He stopped and “immediately ran over,” he said.

Bergeron helped Gordon from the 18-wheeler, who “basically fell out and yelled there’s a fire, a fire.”

With Gordon safely on the ground, Bergeron yanked a fire extinguisher from the Freightliner and turned the nozzle.

“The fire went out, but I gave it a couple more blasts just to make sure,” he said. “I did what little I could, but it wasn’t much. I was spraying a water gun.”

Bergeron then walked over to Guarino’s truck, placing a finger on the 79-year-old’s neck to check a pulse.

Nothing.

“I said a little prayer, but I think God already had him,” Bergeron said.

Meanwhile, Garcia stood on the front stoop of her house, wondering why the tragedy had to unfold in her front yard.

For years, every time car tires screech, she hops up and peeks outside her blinds, scared a death like Guarino’s may happen, or worse a car will careen into her home or herself while she hangs laundry on a line outside her trailer.

“I just put the Lord with me,” she said. “If I have to go, I have to go. But maybe I’m here for a purpose to help those that wreck.”