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The drowning of a 15-year-old Bossier Parish boy fishing on Lake Bistineau last week highlights the need for safety barriers at spillways on state-operated waterbodies, according to Public Service Commissioner Foster Campbell and Bossier Parish Sheriff Julian Whittington.
Currents can be swift and unpredictable where impoundments hold back water on manmade lakes, Campbell said. Louisiana can prevent needless drownings at these spillways with floating safety barriers or similar devices.
Campbell made his case in a letter to Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Secretary Jack Montoucet. Campbell wrote Montoucet one week after 15-year-old Hayden Lane Mangum of Elm Grove drowned while fishing with a friend at the Lake Bistineau spillway on Louisiana Highway 154.
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LAKE BISTINEAU STATE PARK, La Daybreak brought heartbreak to family and friends of a Calvary Baptist Academy student-athlete who drowned during a fishing outing with his best friend.
The Bossier Parish Sheriff s Office says the body of Hayden Lane Mangum was recovered at about 7 a.m. Wednesday. The bass boat he and his best friend, Cade Bedgood, were fishing from capsized in the swifter waters near the spillway at the Louisiana Highway 154 bridge at about 4 p.m. Tuesday.
Bedgood made it to shore safely. And an all out, all night search operation was launched.
Members of the Bossier Parish Sheriff s Search & Rescue team look for Mangum.