Effie “Liz” Fontenot, 29; her children, Keagan Fontenot, just turned 11; Hunter Johnson, 7; and Austin Fontenot, 3; and Kimberly Stagg, 29, all of Prairieville, died when Fontenot’s car caught fire after the collision.
Arrangements for Fontenot and her children are pending at Ardoin's. She was the daughter of Gary and Sue Fontenot.
Many Eunice residents remember Fontenot from the time she worked at Nick’s on 2nd Street.
She was working at a restaurant in Prairieville at the time of her death, as was Stagg.
According to Frank Dedman, III, one of their employers, the women and children were enroute to a bowling alley when a westbound pickup crossed the median south of Highland Road, sideswiped an 18-wheeler and hit Fontenot’s car head-on.
The sequence of events happened in just seconds, troopers said.
The pickup, driven by David Leger, 29, of Palmetto, first collided with an SUV on the highway’s west-bound side.
That sent it spinning clockwise across the median, which has no guard rail to prevent crossovers at that point, and into the big rig’s trailer. It careened from there into Fontenot’s car, which came to a stop in the east-bound lanes and caught fire, killing all five inside.
Leger and his passenger, Rebecca Obrien, 28, of Bunkie received lifet-threatening injuries.
The driver of the SUV, Kelsye Hall, 24, of Baton Rouge and the driver of the 18-wheeler, Calvin Vincent, 60, of Texas City, Texas, were not injured.
Investigation continues as to pre-accident circumstances as blood sample testing of the surviving drivers.
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