High speed was a major factor in the weekend vehicular death ofa Natchez man, Mississippi Highway Patrol officials said.

MHP Public Affairs Officer Rusty Boyd said Jacob Lafferty, 19,of Natchez, was killed in a one-car accident on Highway 84 inFranklin County when his 2007 Pontiac Grand Prix left the rightside of the highway at 9:39 a.m. Saturday and collided with a tree.The accident occrurred about eight miles east of Roxie.

“He went off the road and (MHP Corp.) Ellis Hollingsworth, whoworked the scene, said from the place he went off the road he wentabout 160 yards and hit some kind of bump in the ground,” saidBoyd. “From there he went airborne for 40 feet and hit a tree about10 feet off the ground.”

Other drivers reported seeing Lafferty’s vehicle traveling athigh speeds shortly before the accident, according to the HighwayPatrol.

Lafferty had to be extracted from the vehicle, Boyd said, and hewas not wearing a seat belt. He was pronounced dead on the scene byFranklin County Coroner Percy Peeler.