Collision Kills Heflin Teen

ELM GROVE - A head-on collision during heavy rainfall Thursday claimed the life of a Heflin teen-ager and injured two other people on U.S. Highway 71 just north of Elm Grove, Bossier Parish authorities said.

Eighteen-year-old driver Nina Ann Stachowiez of Heflin was pronounced dead at the scene and her passenger - Matthew Isbell, 17. of Ringgold - was listed in critical condition Thursday night at I.SU Medical Center in Shreveport.

Bossier Parish Sheriff's office spokesman Ed Baswell said Stachowiez was driving southbound when her 1995 Chevrolet Cavalier hit a patch of water and hydroplaned about 12:30 p.m. "Her car clipped a northbound work truck and (went) into a spin, ending up in the northbound lane, where it hit a northbound 1991 Ford pickup head-on," Baswell said. The pickup driver.

Thomas Whidden, 44, of Mooringsport, was listed in fair condition at LSUMC.
The driver of the Energy Wireline Inc. work truck, Donald Ivey, 30, of Shreveport, was not injured.

"We feel weather contributed greatly to this accident," Baswell said. "The car hit a spot in the road where there was about an inch of water and we believe there was a point when all four tires were not in contact with the pavement.*

By Sammy G. Allen, The Times Fri, Dec 11, 1998