Families ache after crash that killed two teenagers in Norwich Township

The grieving mother of a 16-year-old killed in a single-vehicle rollover along a rural road in Norwich Township is having a wooden cross carved in her son’s honour.

The parents of an 18-year-old girl killed in the same crash want people to know she was a light that can never be replaced.

And parents of one survivor are reaching out to express their horribly mixed emotions.

The rollover just after midnight Friday that killed two and injured five others has sent waves of sorrow across Southwestern Ontario, Canada and to family overseas.

Reporters with The Brantford Expositor and The London Free Press have identified the two people killed as Lucas Crump, 16, of Mount Pleasant and Avery Warwick, 18, of Brantford.

“Everybody who knew him, loved him,” Karen Hanson-Crump said of her only child. “He had an aura. He just radiated goodness. I want people to remember his warmth, his smile, his compassion. I just don’t want them to forget.”

Lucas was taken to hospital in Tillsonburg, then flown to Victoria Hospital in London where “doctors and first-responders worked tirelessly to save him” without success, she said.

He was pronounced dead at 4:30 am, several hours after the midnight crash at a rural intersection that one nearby resident says has been the site of several other collisions in recent years.

The collision at Cornell and Furnace roads happened at the bottom of a steep hill with a sharp turn to the left. The vehicle went off the road at the edge of a ditch, hitting a line of cedar trees. A line of new trees was planted to replace old ones taken out in previous crashes, said a woman who lives nearby.

“They hit the gravel and it rolled, I don’t know how many times,” said Hanson-Crump, who stressed alcohol wasn’t a factor.

Lucas was an honor student in the French immersion program at North Park Collegiate in Brantford – all those involved in the crash attended the high school – who would have been entering Grade 11 next month. Hanson-Crump said the school is arranging counseling next week for students and staff.

Lucas, who had a mop of curly hair his mom said comes from her side of the family, played house league hockey and soccer. He was a Chicago Blackhawks fan and idolized soccer star Lionel Messi. His hockey coach, Jeremy Smith, remembered him as “a happy-go-lucky kid.”

Hanson-Crump said Lucas wasn’t close friends with the others he was out with on the night of the crash – they were more friends of friends. She said they had been visiting one of the teen’s grandparents in Otterville, stopped for food in Tillsonburg, and were heading home.

In a statement, Ontario Provincial Police said one passenger was ejected from the vehicle and an 18-year-old girl from Brantford died at the scene. Police have indicated Crump was a passenger; his mother confirmed the passenger who was ejected and killed was Avery.

Family and friends remembered Avery as a kind, happy teenager and good student about to start her college life.

“She was an amazing young woman on her way to Algonquin College, a manager at McDonald’s and an amazing rugby player,” a family member messaged. “She was always happy and always wanted to help anyone around her. She was a light to us all and can never be replaced.”

Avery’s parents could not be reached for comment.

“Avery touched the lives of so many, our beloved shining, happy girl, the light of our lives and the beat of our hearts,” her family wrote in her obituary.

The family of one of the teenagers who survived also wrote on Avery’s online obituary, expressing their grievance.

“There are absolutely no words to describe the incredible waves of emotions we are feeling. While we hug, kiss and are able to hold our son we cannot imagine the incredible pain you all are going through. It’s so hard to be thankful while knowing what loss came with it,” the parents of one boy wrote.

Avery is survived by her parents Liz and Jeff Warwick, older sister Hayley, grandparents and many aunts, uncles and cousins ​​in Brantford, Simcoe, Chatham and the UK

Visitation will be held from 5 to 8 pm Aug. 7 at Toll Funeral Home, 55 Charing Cross St. in Brantford. A celebration of Avery’s life will be held in the chapel there on Aug. 8 at 2 p.m.

Lucas is survived by his mother, father Lance Crump, grandparents and many aunts, uncles and cousins ​​across the country.

Visitation will be held from 6 pm to 9 pm Aug. 11 and 11 am to 1 pm on Aug. 12 at Beckett-Glaves Family Funeral Center in Brantford. A service of remembrance will be held in the chapel there on Saturday at 1 pm

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