An eyewitness account of terror on Bourbon Street

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – A man’s body was contorted in a way that you wouldn’t think was humanly possible. It was a heap of mangled flesh. On the other side of the street, a man was bleeding from his head as panic ensued all around. Though he was talking, he was laid out flat. A woman lay on the pavement, not moving—either unconscious or dead. Others were motionless and strewn along Bourbon Street. It was a scene of human wreckage. Pandemonium erupted in New Orleans on New Year’s Day. Revelers moved as quickly as possible to avoid the threat of death, including Jeremy Curtis, who pushed his wife, Brittany, out of harm’s way as a white Ford pickup truck barreled toward them. “He had to have been going at least 60 mph,” said Curtis, who had arrived in the Crescent City on Dec. 28 with Brittany to enjoy the festivities leading up to the New Year’s celebration. A former Memphian now living on the outskirts of Washington, D.C., with his wife and their four-year-old son Preston, Curtis, 33, and Brittany, 34, were traumatized by the horrific experience and are now trying to cope. Jeremy is a 2009 graduate of Fairley High...