Impairment, Speed, Lack of Seat Belt Usage Suspected as Factors in Morning Crash that Claimed the Life of a Louisiana Teen

DeQuincy, Louisiana – On August 14, 2022, Louisiana State Police reported that soon before 4:15 a.m., Troopers from LSP Troop D were notified of a single-vehicle fatal crash at the intersection of Camp Edgewood Road and Pilgrim Rest Road in Beauregard Parish. Kyler Louis Lacy, 19, of Sulphur, Louisiana, died in the crash.

The early investigation found that a 2000 Ford pickup truck driven by Chad Garren Cooley, 20, of DeQuincy, Louisiana, was traveling at a high rate of speed east on Camp Edgewood Road. Cooley reportedly lost control of the vehicle and drove off to the right. The truck then returned across the road and overturned.
Lacy, a front-seat passenger in the Ford, was unrestrained at the time of the incident and died as a result of his injuries. He was declared dead at the site of the crash. Cooley suffered minor injuries and was sent to a hospital in the Lake Charles area for treatment.

A toxicological sample was acquired from the driver and will be analyzed. This crash is still being investigated.

Drivers should be aware that alcohol and other drugs have a variety of impacts on the body. Alcohol and other substances can impair vision, distort one’s sense of time and space, impair fine motor skills required to drive a car, and increase reaction times. These effects could be caused by just one drink. Drivers are recommended to plan ahead of time and choose a sober driver. Failure to do so can have fatal repercussions.

Wearing your seat belt correctly reduces your chances of being injured or killed in a crash. Louisiana law requires that everyone in a vehicle, regardless of seating position, wear their seat belts at all times. The most common cause of fatality in car accidents is not wearing a seat belt.
Speeding diminishes a driver’s ability to steer safely around curves or obstructions in the road, increases the distance required to stop a vehicle, and increases the distance a vehicle travels while the driver is at the wheel.

Speeding and other aggressive driving habits are major causes of highway accidents.

So far in 2022, Troop D has investigated 17 fatal crashes that resulted in 19 deaths.