Trey and I's anniversery today! 
Cody and Zach, Please pull through, we are ALL praying for you.
R.I.P DUSTIN LATURE
Man killed in head-on crash
Pals driving vehicles also hurt on La. 41
Tuesday, November 29, 2005
By Paul Rioux
St. Tammany bureau
An 18-year-old Hickory man was killed and two other men were critically injured Monday in a head-on car crash near Pearl River involving drivers who are close friends, authorities said.
Police said the cause of the crash is unclear, but friends of the drivers said they liked to "play chicken," or swerve their vehicles at one another in jest as they passed on the two-lane highway.
Dustin Latour, a passenger in one of the vehicles, died at the scene of the 10:45 a.m. crash on Louisiana 41 about two miles north of Pearl River, State Police said.
The drivers, Cody Ousley, 18, and Zachary Holifield, 21, both of Pearl River, were listed in critical but stable condition at Slidell hospitals Monday afternoon, authorities said.
Latour was riding in Ousley's southbound 1997 Ford F-150 pickup truck when it veered across the center line and slammed into Holifield's oncoming 1997 Chevrolet Blazer near Jack Crawford Road, State Police said.
Both vehicles spun off the east side of the highway and came to rest side by side in a ditch, with their front ends smashed nearly level with the dashboards.
Firefighters had to extricate all three men from the mangled vehicles.
Latour was thrown into the windshield and died of traumatic injuries, said Mark Lombard, a coroner's office investigator.
Ousley was taken to Slidell Memorial Hospital, and Holifield was taken to NorthShore Regional Medical Center. Details about their injuries were unavailable Monday afternoon.
A police report said alcohol is not suspected as a factor. Police don't know whether the victims were wearing seat belts, it also said.
Upon his release from the hospital, Ousley will be booked with negligent homicide, negligent injuring and driving left of center, according to the report.
Why Ousley's truck veered into oncoming traffic was unclear, police said.
However, several people who know Ousley and Holifield said the men are good friends and neighbors who liked to "play chicken" whenever they met on the highway.
"They always swerved at each other when they passed by," said Kyle Painter, 17. "They did it to mess with one another, but I don't know if that's why they crashed."
Latour's mother, Rhonda Ryan, who lives nearby, came to the crash scene and collapsed sobbing in the grass near the wrecked vehicles.
"Please, God! Bring him back! Please!" she wailed as relatives tried to comfort her.
Friends and relatives said Latour was a whiz with small engines and could often be found tinkering with go-carts and motorbikes.
"He was a really good kid who never got into any trouble and was always helping people," said Penny Gavin, an aunt. "He would get up in our attic with my husband for hours working on the electrical system."
Latour, who dropped out of Pearl River High School as a junior last year, worked for Boh Bros. Construction and was studying for a general equivalency diploma so he could be certified to operate heavy machinery, friends said.
At the time of the crash, Latour was riding with Ousley to New Orleans to help him apply for a job with Boh Bros., friends said.
Latour's cousin Bobby Ryan said he also had planned to go with Latour to apply for a job but instead decided to help his father pick up some furniture in Slidell.
"It's scary to think that I was supposed to be in that truck," he said, shaking his head as a tow truck pulled the smashed vehicle from the ditch. "I just can't believe it. He was such a good kid."
Bobby Ryan said he was talking to Latour on a cell phone about the time of the crash.
"He called to see if I wanted them to pick me up. I told him not to bother, and then the phone went dead," he said. "At first I thought he hung up, but now I realize that's probably when they crashed."
To Cody,
"Unsinkable ships sink
Unbreakable walls break
Sometimes the things you think could never happen
Happens just like that
Unbendable steel bends
If the fury of the wind is unstoppable
I've learned to never underestimate
The impossible"
-Joe Nichols
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