On February 1, 2026, shortly before 8:30 p.m., a 2022 Toyota RAV4 traveling west on Interstate 10 near milepost 179 in Ascension Parish, Louisiana, struck the back of an unoccupied Gonzales Police Department Chevrolet Tahoe. The police vehicle was parked in the left travel lane with emergency lights activated while officers handled a separate collision. Louisiana State Police identified two rear-seat RAV4 passengers who died: Jose Luis Martinez II and Ashley Garza, both 32, from Cincinnati, Ohio. The driver and front-seat passenger sustained moderate injuries and survived. This is one incident with two deaths.
Authoritative crash chronology
The Louisiana State Police Troop A release dated February 2 identifies the crash date, victims, two vehicles, lane positions and preliminary sequence. Martinez was pronounced dead at the scene. Garza was taken to hospital with serious injuries and later died. Troopers stated that the reason the RAV4 struck the stationary emergency vehicle was still under investigation. They were gathering toxicology evidence as part of standard work and reminded drivers of their obligation to slow down and move over for emergency vehicles.
Aftermarket automated-driving system
A later review of National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports connected the same collision to a comma.ai driver-assistance device installed in the RAV4. Comma sells aftermarket hardware for use with openpilot, an open-source driver-supervised system that can assist steering and speed control. Electrek's September 24, 2026 examination of federal reports identified this Ascension Parish incident and quoted the manufacturer as saying its equipment appeared to have been running third-party, non-comma software. Journalists described that modified version as FrogPilot, a fork of the original openpilot code. This matters when evaluating responsibility for particular code components.
Federal preliminary investigation
On September 21, 2026, NHTSA's Office of Defects Investigation opened preliminary evaluation PE26007 concerning comma three, comma 3X and comma four hardware and the software used with those systems. It examined five crashes in which equipped vehicles collided with stopped or slow-moving traffic, with three deaths across two fatal incidents and eleven reported injuries in four crashes. NHTSA said systems were powered or engaged in several incidents and early data raised questions about obstacle detection and response. These are grounds to investigate, not a completed defect determination. The other fatal accident covered by the federal probe is not merged into this entry because public reporting has not provided a sufficiently precise independent identity and location for it.
Limitations of attribution
The fact of the fatal Louisiana collision rests on a primary police record. Its linkage to the aftermarket system rests on analysis of NHTSA manufacturer submissions. The precise condition of the driver, warning timing, braking commands, presence of modified software and relative role of the stopped emergency SUV remain unresolved. Comma has disputed aspects of NHTSA's reporting obligations and indicated that third-party modifications may complicate attribution. No court has determined that comma.ai or FrogPilot caused the two deaths.
Map and case boundaries
Only Martinez and Garza are counted as deceased. Two front-seat occupants survived and the police Tahoe was empty. The map is an approximate Ascension Parish or Gonzales city-level location, not an exact freeway point. This case is categorized as a driver-assistance incident with evidence under review, not as a proven failure of AI that alone caused death.