By LEONARD GRAY

DESTREHAN – A Norco teen-ager died early Wednesday on River Road near Ormond Boulevard when his vehicle struck a utility pole and he died in the ensuing fire.

Benjamin Louis Perret, 19, of 655 W. Pine St., was eastbound on River Road, apparently at a high rate of speed, according to the report by Louisiana State Police Trooper Randy Harness. He was the son of Perry and Kelley Perret.

At 12:23 a.m., for unknown reasons, the 1995 Ford F-150 pickup truck Perret was driving went off the right shoulder just east of Ormond Boulevard. He apparently tried to steer back onto the road but began to skid sideways and struck a utility pole, becoming engulfed in a fire.

A few blocks ahead, near Destrehan Drive, Jarad Yoes noticed the sound of the transformer exploding and the power outage and turned around. Yoes said he arrived to see Dustin Jones, a passenger in the truck, pulling fellow passenger Jimmy Andersen from the wreckage and the pair ran back to the wreckage but were unable to reach the unconscious Perret.

Passenger Amanda Hvezda was ejected from the pickup truck upon impact.

Jones, 21, of 236 Murray Hill Drive; Andersen, 19; of 111 Thomas Coby Drive, Hvezda, 18, of 253 Dunleith Drive, all of Destrehan, were able to escape, but Perret could not.

Jones and Hvezda were transported to St. Charles Parish Hospital in Luling for treatment of their injuries, from where they were soon released. Andersen was transported to West Jefferson Hospital by helicopter.

Perret, a second-year mechanical engineering major at LSU, was “extremely personable with tons of friends,” according to his mother, Kelley Perret. She and his father, Perry, also recalled the teen-ager’s love of hunting.

“His passion was duck-hunting,” Perry Perret said.

Hvezda and Andersen are both college freshmen, she at LSU and he at Nicholls State. Jones also attended Destrehan High School.

His mother remembered how beloved he was by even the youngest in his family. One 4-year-old niece of the couple, when told Ben was gone, asked, “Is he the one we call ‘Tickler?'”

Ben Perret also leaves a sister, Jo Lyn, a junior at Destrehan High School.

At the crash scene, several of his friends erected first a large cross and have since added a duck blind and held a vigil at the scorched earth, now adorned with candles, throughout Thursday.

His college roommate and lifelong friend, Dustin Mule, whispered as he gazed at the crash site: “He was the best friend I ever had. He was the only brother I ever had.”

Services were held Friday in the chapel of Faith Funeral Home, New Orleans, with interment in Prairieville.

“Our faith is very strong as a family,” said his mother.