Hope mourns young crash victims

Brad Webb, celebrating his 20th birthday, among three killed in Highway 1 accident

One of the three young men killed in a car crash early Friday near Hope died on his 20th birthday.

Brad Webb and two cousins — identified by numerous friends on Facebook as Morgan Peters and Devan King — were killed when their car left Highway 1 and crashed into the Hunter Creek weigh scale building at about 4 a.m.

RCMP said a passing truck driver noticed the car and called police.

Emergency crews arrived to find the bodies of the three young men in the wreckage. The names and ages of the men have not been officially released, but a Facebook memorial page has identified them as Webb, Peters and King.

All three lived in the eastern Fraser Valley.

Hope Mayor Wilfried Vicktor told the Sunday Province that a “heavy cloud” was hanging over Hope after residents of the tight-knit community learned about the crash.

“We’ve lost three promising young people from the area who won’t be a part of our future,” he said. “One of the gentleman had his birthday yesterday. He died on his birthday.”

Pastor Jeff Kuhn said he knew Webb, who graduated from Hope Secondary School in 2013. “He was a hockey guy,” he said. “This is going to hit (his team) very hard.”

Kuhn said Webb was well-liked, with a quiet, but kind, personality.

Both students and teachers at his former high school were “rocked” by news of his death, he said.

The pastor said he’d spoken to some of Webb’s friends who visited his Facebook page Friday morning to wish him a happy birthday only to learn he had died.

“The community is really grieving,” Kuhn said. “This is a reminder that life is a gift. It’s so unexpected.”

On Facebook, friends remembered all three young men as happy and caring.

“We’re all so lucky that we got to meet and grow closer to him,” said one friend about Peters.

Friends posted photos of the men at their graduation and hoisting a trophy after a win at a hockey tournament.