Mother, children killed in accident

A young Lockesburg, Ark., mother and her two small children died Monday afternoon in a two-vehicle accident on U.S. Highway 71 near Cove, Ark.

According to an Arkansas State Police fatality report, Latosha Nichole Leathers, 24, and her two children were pronounced dead at the scene of the accident. Leathers was also pregnant with her third child, according to a Go Fund Me account set up by family friends in Lockesburg.

The ASP report states Leathers and the two children died after Leathers lost control of her 2002 Ford van and it entered the southbound lane of U.S. 71, where it was struck by a 1975 Peterbilt tractor-trailer.

The children’s names and ages, according to local reports, were Alana Alexis Conatser, 5, and Dustin James Leathers, 1.

The truck’s driver, 52-year-old Marla Gayle Pipes of Redwater, Texas, was taken to Mena Medical Center. Her injures were not considered life-threatening.

The accident happened at 1:05 p.m. Monday about 11 miles south of Mena, Ark.

The investigating trooper reported road conditions were wet at the time of the accident.

A Go Fund Me account has been set up for Latosha Leather’s husband, Dustin Leathers, at gofundme.com/r69sp2c.

The accident happened just a week after another fatal vehicle accident in the same area on U.S. 71. Joe Michael Johnson III, 43, of Cove was killed on impact March 29 in Wickes, Ark., when a Peterbilt truck crossed the center line of U.S. 71, according to an ASP report. The Peterbilt struck Johnson’s truck and another vehicle. No one else was injured.