Morning Crash Claims Teen Life

NPS RELEASE PRENTISS COUNTY, MS – On September 4, 2018, at approximately 4:10 a.m., Lee County 911 received notification of a single motor vehicle collision near Tishomingo, MS (milepost 287). U.S. Park Rangers, Prentiss County Sheriff’s Deputies, the Prentiss County Coroner, and the Houston Volunteer Fire Department responded to the scene.

The vehicle, a 2008 Ford Fusion, was operated by a 17 year-old juvenile male of New Site, MS.    Preliminary information indicates that the juvenile was traveling northbound on the Parkway when the vehicle left the roadway and struck a tree. He was pronounced deceased at the hospital.

Chief Ranger Sarah Davis stated this was the fourth fatality on the Parkway in the last four weeks.  “Historically, we see a spike in fatalities and serious injury collisions towards the end of the summer season, but this is unprecedented,” said Davis. “We had been eight months without a fatality collision and now four deaths in four weeks, it’s just too much.”  Rangers remind drivers that the Parkway is narrower than a standard highway and does not have a paved road shoulder.  Any driving error is magnified because there is less room to recover. “Speeding and/or distracted driving are the main causal factors in every one of these. Each of these drivers made a mistake and it cost them, or someone else, their lives. Each one of these was totally preventable,” said Davis.