Brandy Hatchard expected to see her friend Dawson Spencer Saturday night.
The Maple Ridge teen learned Sunday she’ll never talk to her friend again because he died in a car accident that she drove by on her way home.
Like a lot of her friends, the 16-year-old was out Saturday night.
“We thought we were going to see Dawson,” said Hatchard of her popular buddy.
Early Sunday morning she and her friends actually drove by the fatal crash scene at Dewdney Trunk Road and Dunbar Street.
“We didn’t think anything of it,” she said.
But Hatchard had an awful lot to think of later in the day when she learned Spencer, 16, had died as a result of the crash at around 2:25 a.m.
A 18-year-old female passenger also lost her life in the crash and four other young people involved in the incident are in serious condition
RCMP are investigating the incident where a green Dodge van with three young men collided with a blue Honda car with three young women.
Hatchard, who showed up crying at the scene to leave a bundle of flowers, called her friend “a really great guy.”
“Me and Dawson have been best friends since Grade Eight,” she said of the young man who formerly attended Westview Secondary but who she said had been in Grade 11 in an alternative program.
Hatchard said Dawson was popular, especially with his female schoolmates.
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“I think he had more girl friends than boy friends,” said the Grade 11 student at Westview.
“He was a great guy. He will be missed.”
Hatchard’s mother Vanessa Knox confirmed her daughter’s opinion of Dawson.
“He was a great kid, a great sense of humour,” she said. “He had lots of friends.”
Like everyone else that went by the scene, including a group of sobbing young women that left the first flowers at the scene, Knox was grieving.
“Life is short,” she said between her own tears. “Anyone that has a teen anywhere in Maple Ridge, in the world, needs to give them a special hug and kiss today after what’s happened.
“I don’t know if alcohol was involved or not, If it was, it’s time for all the teens to wake up and realize it will happen to you.
“You have to hope something good, somewhere, something good will come out of it. You have to hope, that people will drive slower, not drink and drive, that people will take the extra moment not to get behind the wheel.”
All that remained at the scene late Sunday morning were a few bits of broken glass and plastic, some scattered coins, the red stain of blood – and the awful memories.
Larry Chapotelle lives down the scene from the accident and was woken by a “huge boom.”
“I heard the squealing tires,” he said. “I heard the smash, And then I came out.”
The scene was chaotic.
Bystanders had stopped to help. Police, fire trucks and ambulances were on the scene quickly.
Chapotelle said one woman was trapped in the car involved in the accident.
“All she was doing was yelling out the window, ‘Help me somebody, please help me,’” said Chapotelle, who said he lost his own fiancé in a similar crash.
It took firefighters 45 minutes to remove her from the wreck.
Chapotelle blamed speed, especially on Dewdney Trunk.
“We call this ‘Dewdney Trunk Speedway,’” he said.
As for the accident, he believes somebody “was driving way too fast.”
Police have not yet released the names of the kids who were killed, although online posts to Twitter and Facebook identified Dawson Spencer as the male driver.
“To lose two young local people is devastating.” said Sgt. Dale Somerville of Ridge Meadows RCMP Traffic Services in a release.
“Our sincere condolences go out to the two families. Our investigation into the crash is in its initial phase. Due to the ages of the people involved in this, Ridge Meadows RCMP’s Youth Resource Officers will be working with School District 42 to ensure appropriate counselling is in place. We ask anyone who may have witnessed this crash, and has not yet spoken to police, to come forward.”
Anyone with information about this accident is asked to call Ridge Meadows RCMP at 604-463-6251.
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