Nearly a year after four teen boys died on a camping trip, U.K. officials have reached a devastating conclusion to their investigation.
Shrewsbury residents Hugo Morris, 18; Harvey Owen, 17; Wilf Fitchett, 17; and Jevon Hirst, 16, drowned last November in a flooded ditch after a car the teens were in lost control and landed upside-down in the water.
The group had been spending time in Eryri National Park and were on their way to a new campsite when their Ford Fiesta overturned Nov. 19.
According to the BBC, authorities searched for missing teens for two days before a passing recycling truck spotted the vehicle in the ditch.
The cause of death: drowning according to a coroners report. Police in #Wales previously said the bodies of Wilf Fitchett, Jevon Hirst, Harvey Owen and Hugo Morris, who were aged between 16 and 18, had been recovered from a vehicle that appeared to have left the road in a… pic.twitter.com/sfCVTyvxdE
— @BeeNewsDailyB (@BeenewsdailyB) November 29, 2023
Now, the tragedy has become even more profound as authorities have said the fatal accident was totally avoidable.
Crash investigators concluded that the vehicle was in perfect mechanical condition, save for the rear tires, which were inflated to only half the pressure needed for the car’s load.
They also said Morris, the car’s driver, likely entered a bend in the road at such a high speed that he lost control and left the road.
The posted speed limit on the roadway was 60 mph.
One official calculated the maximum safe speed entering the curve at 38 miles per hour, speculating the Fiesta was traveling much faster.
Other conditions likely contributed to the deaths, including rainy weather and leaf litter on the road.
The official said the crash “was avoidable.”
Kate Robertson, the senior coroner for North West Wales, argued that there was also inadequate signage for the dangerous curve.
Crystal Owen, the mother of Harvey Owen, was among those left devastated in the wake of the accident.
“Harvey was perfect from the minute he came into this world and continued to be so until he was tragically taken from us,” Owen told the Shropshire Star. “A much-longed-for son and little brother to his sister Yasmin who he had an inseparable bond with, Harvey went on to become a big brother to his little sisters, Sophia and Olivia, who idolized him and miss him dearly.”
“They cannot make sense of what has happened, as we cannot either.”
Owen said that before the accident, her son had expressed his appreciation for everything in his life and his hopes for a “promising” future.
The mother of a teenager who died in North Wales has been speaking after a coroner ruled her son – and three of his friends – were killed in a crash.
Crystal Owen’s son Harvey died alongside 17 year old’s Wilf Fitchett and Jevon Hirst and Hugo Morris, who was 18. pic.twitter.com/AZ05iylcPA
— Hits Radio South Wales (@HitsSouthWales) October 16, 2024
Results from post-mortems found that none of the boys had any observable injuries anywhere in or on their bodies.
Their official cause of death was given as drowning.
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