Veteran law enforcement officer John Pennino has spent the better part of his life at the scene of horrific car crashes, mending mother’s broken hearts and pulling lifeless bodies from mangled metal.

They’re memories, he said, he doesn’t want to relive.

“It changes you,” he said.

John Pennino stands guard at La. Highway 434 in Lacombe looking for speeders. (Staff Photo by Matt Penix)

So at 82 and armed with a greater appreciation of life after Hurricane Katrina destroyed his Venetian Isle home, Pennino is speaking out against speed demons zipping along Louisiana Highway 434, the cross street of his new home on Azalea Street.

Donning his U.S.S. Chokaskia hat, an ode to the 2.5 million gallon tanker refueling ship he manned in World War II, Pennino stands at the corner of his driveway day after day and night after night watching in disgust as dump trucks, 18-wheelers and sports cars zoom at up to 70 mph along the 45 mph roadway.

The speeding started several months ago when the road was repaved, he said.

“As soon as the road was paved it was like Indianapolis 500,” he said. “I’m not trying to hurt anybody’s business, but somebody is going to get killed.”

It’s a chance the 30-year New Orleans Police Department veteran can’t take.

His daughter lives across the street and his son lives a few houses away. Together he has five grandchildren in the neighborhood.

One day, he fears, they may be hit. School busses, about six or so, typically pick up and drop off students along La. 434. And many busses, whose kids often wave to him from inside, find it difficult turning off and into the highway’s narrow cross streets.

“When a car is coming out of one of the roads, they can’t see around those big school busses,” he said. “That’s my biggest fear.”

But State Police, which patrols the highway that runs north to south through Lacombe, said accidents and speeders aren’t necessarily a problem.

“It’s not a hot spot that we know of, but certainly it has its moments,” State Police Troop L spokesman Louis Calato said.

A search of St. Tammany News archives over the past four years did not yield any fatalities on the highway.

Pennino, however, said that’s exactly the statistic he’s trying to maintain.

“I don’t want to relive those memories of the past,” he said.