[03/01/02]A Tallulah teen-ager was killed Thursday afternoon when the car his mother was driving careened off U.S. 80 and threw him from the vehicle, Louisiana State Police said.

Courtney D. Higgs, 16, 403 S. Walnut St., died immediately, said Dr. T.A. Neumann, Madison Parish coroner.

His mother, Mary Ann Higgs, 39, of the same address, was injured and remained in Madison Parish Hospital in stable condition this morning, a hospital spokesman said.

A spokesman for Troop F of the Louisiana State Police in Monroe said the 1985 Ford Thunderbird in which the Higgses were traveling was eastbound on U.S. 80 about four miles west of Tallulah when it left the highway for unknown reasons. It then hit the ditch and went airborne. Courtney Higgs was ejected from the car and it landed on him, the police spokesman said.

Courtney’s body was released to Beckwith Funeral Home of Tallulah.