July 08--LONG BEACH -- Two New Orleans firefighters died in a crash early Sunday when the pickup truck they were traveling in struck a tree, Harrison County Coroner Gary Hargrove said.
The driver, Tommy Ashby Jr., 28, of Chalmette, La., and the front seat passenger, Scott Blanchard, 27, of Metairie, La., died at the scene. Two men in back seats were taken to Memorial Hospital at Gulfport.
The coroner said Ashby and Blanchard were not wearing a seat belt, and they each died of head and neck trauma.
The one-vehicle crash was reported at 1:44 a.m. Sunday on U.S. 90 just east of Beach Park Place.
Hargrove said the Ford F350 pickup truck was westbound and speeding when the driver lost control and the truck hit a tree in the median.
Ashby and Blanchard were members of the New Orleans Fire Department, the coroner said.
Long Beach Police Chief Wayne McDowell said the Long Beach Fire Department also responded to the scene
He said the injured men also are from Louisiana. One is a 30-year-old from Chalmette. The other is a 26-year-old from Violet. Their conditions were not available later Sunday.
A third highway fatality occurred on I-10 in South Mississippi over the Independence Day weekend.
Friday night, a man from Pineville, La., was standing beside his vehicle when he was struck by an oncoming vehicle.
Demarcus K. Williams, 30, had stopped his Ford Explorer in an emergency lane on the overpass at Exit 2 in Hancock County. A woman and two children were in his vehicle when he was struck, a Mississippi Highway Patrol spokesman said. Williams died at the scene.
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