By KERI CHAMPION

Staff Reporter

LAPLACE-A Florida fugitive escaped from a Louisiana State Trooper early Thursday morning after being arrested during a traffic accident.

&#8220Troop B dispatched an officer to the northbound lanes of Interstate 55 in response to a traffic incident that occurred at about 6:30 a.m. Thursday. During the traffic investigation the trooper learned that one of the people involved in the accident had warrants in Florida for larceny, burglary and fraud,” spokesman for the Louisiana State Police Troop B Joseph Piglia said,

According to police reports, the trooper then arrested the individual and handcuffed him. The subject was then secured and placed into the back of the police car and then returned to the vehicles where the trooper continued his investigation of the traffic incident.

While the officer was finishing his investigation of the traffic incident, the subject managed to free himself from the handcuffs and escape from the back of the police car.

&#8220As the trooper glanced over the guardrail he saw the arrested individual hanging from the guardrail, the subject then let go of the guardrail and dropped from the elevated roadway into the water and began to swim towards the grassy area on the east side of LA Hwy. 51, where he was last seen,” Piglia said.

Air support and search and rescue units were called out to the scene to search for the escaped subject and backup was called in.

By 12:15 a.m. Nov. 10, 2006 the subject had not been located. The name of the escapee is being withheld pending further notification.