Three Who Died in January 10 Wreck Identified

The Texas Department of Public Safety released the names of the three people who died in the Jan. 10 crash on State Highway 71 west of La Grange.

The wreck happened in the westbound turning lane at the intersection of SH 71 and Airport Rd. The driver was Carl Taylor, Jr., 23 of Natchitoches, Louisiana. The front seat passenger was Jordan Lewis, age 17. The back seat passenger was Nicholas Flakes, age 20.

The three young men were in a white Toyota Camry that crashed into the rear of an 18-wheeler that was stopped in the turning lane. The truck was waiting to turn onto Bordovsky Rd. The Toyota burst into flames. The fire burned the victims so badly that it took DPS several days to identify the bodies.

DPS notified their next of kin on Jan. 14, according to a news report from Louisiana. The Natchitoches Times reported that Taylor was the son of a sheriff’s deputy in Natchitoches.

Editor's note: The story originally stated that the accident happened at the intersection of SH 71 and Bordovsky Rd. It has been corrected above.