Rider Falls From Pickup, Hit By Pickup

GONZALES, La. (AP) — State police say a Gonzales teenager died when he fell from the bed of a pickup truck and was hit by oncoming traffic.

The accident happened Friday night in Ascension Parish.

Trooper Jared Sandifer says 18-year-old Eric W. Martin was one of four passengers in the bed of a Chevrolet pickup heading east on Duplessis Road when the driver, Gerard J. Cahill, turned right onto U.S. 61 toward Gonzales.

Martin fell from the bed onto the southbound lanes of U.S. 61 and into the path of a pickup truck driven by Brian Guillot. Sandifer says Guillot was unable to avoid hitting Martin.