Four teenagers who died when their car overturned in a flooded ditch were "happy and laughing" when they stopped to buy camping supplies.
Jevon Hirst, 16, Harvey Owen, 17, Wilf Fitchett, 17, and Hugo Morris, 18, were killed in the smash as they travelled to Snowdonia on Sunday. The trip turned to tragedy when their silver Ford Fiesta plunged off a road on a tight bend and overturned in a flooded ditch.
Shortly before the tragedy the friends, from Shrewsbury, had visited a Premier Foods store in Harlech to buy supplies for their trip. Shopkeeper Lucy Jones said the boys were in high spirits as they bought charcoal and pasta before heading off on their fateful journey.
She told The Sun: “They were happy, laughing and joking around. They were arguing, saying ‘I can't afford this, I can't afford that.’ But they all seemed to be in a really good mood.”
North Wales Police said in a statement that their deaths appear to have been a “tragic accident”.
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A close friend of one of the four teen was said to have pulled out of the camping trip at the last minute. A fifth boy and close friend of Hugo who has not been named, had originally been set to travel with the group before changing his mind at the last minute. Mimi Ropotka, who worked with Hugo at the town's Pret A Manger café, told the Daily Mail: "He can't believe he has lost his friend so suddenly and tragically," and she added that he was in a "really bad way".
A police officer at the scene where the four teenagers died after their car left the road (Rowan Griffiths / Daily Mirror)Crystal Owen - Harvey's mum - said she did not know the boys were going camping and would have warned them not to due to the weather. Among scores of tributes on social media, a friend of one of the teenagers described him as "one in a million".
A passing binman spotted the crashed Ford Fiesta that contained the bodies of the four teenagers. Farmer Rhys Williams lives at Garreg Hyll Drem Farm, just 25 metres from the spot where the four bodies were found at 10am yesterday morning. He and his wife Carys had been woken hours earlier by the sound of a search and rescue helicopter.
Harvey Owen was one of the teens who tragically died in the crash (WALES NEWS SERVICE)
Wilf Fitchett had been heading out camping with his friends (North Wales Police)Mr Williams described "brutal" weather conditions on Sunday when the youngsters lost contact with their families. It is not known when the fatal accident took place. Mr Williams said they were "so unlucky" to have left the road on a sharp bend, flipping their vehicle into a ditch that was flooded by two days of rain.
Mr Williams said: "They were found by the recycling lorry at 10 that morning. They were higher up, that's why they could see them. The binman told us they had phoned the police. It is only 25 metres around the corner from here. I could see the car but I didn't see anything else.
Jevon Hirst was amongst the four teens found in the crashed car (WALES NEWS SERVICE)
Tributes have poured in for Hugo Morris and his pals after they tragically died (North Wales Police)"They must have been going from Harlech north towards Snowdonia. This is one of two roads they could have taken. There are no tracks on the road, nothing to be seen. It's a sharp bend, it narrows. There were lots of leaves on that corner. There have been one or two accidents there before."
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