Officials Detail How 4 Teens Drowned on Camping Trip, as Parents Share Heartbreak: 'Worst Nightmare'

Mar. 15, 2025

Press Association via AP Images

As police revealeddetails about the drowning deathsoffour teenage boys who died during a camping tripin November 2023, heartbreaking tributes from their grieving parents were also shared.

Jevon Hirst, 16, Harvey Owen, 17, Wilf Fitchett, 17, and 18-year-old Hugo Morris died after their car went into a ditch in the remote Snowdonia region of the U.K. while they were traveling for a camping trip.

At a court hearing on Wednesday, Oct. 16, a police investigator and the senior coroner for North West Wales said that the teens drowned after Morris —who had passed his driving test just six months before the trip — is believed to have lost control of his car while driving too fast in a poorly marked bend in the road, according to theBBCand U.K. newspaperThe Times.

“The vehicle has come into the bend a little bit too quickly and has understeered,” said Ian Thompson, a forensic collision investigator for the North Wales police, according toThe Times. “Mr. Morris negotiated the right-hand bend, entered onto the grass verge, went down a steep embankment and then into a water-filled drainage ditch.”

“I find that all four young men would have died very soon following the collision," said senior coroner Kate Robertson.

Harvey Owen; Jevon Hirst; Hugo Morris; Wilf Fitchett.North Wales Police (4)

North Wales Police (4)

Although the speed limit for the road was 60mph, Thompson said that when it came to the bend, drivers would need to go a lot slower to stay safe. “Having driven the bend myself the fastest speed I felt comfortable negotiating the bend was 26mph,” he said, perThe Guardian.

Robertson said that road signs in the area would not have been enough to warn the boys of the upcoming bend, although more signs and chevrons have since been put in place, perWales Online.

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At the inquest, Heather Sanderson — the mom of Wilf Fitchett — said that the family is grieving not just for themselves, but for all their fellow parents, “particularly for the parents of the driver.”

“We gave Wilf permission to go because we believed that the driver had passed his driving test — which he had," Sanderson said, according to theTimes. “We had done our research and we would make the same decision again."

Screen grab taken from video of the scene in Gwynedd, North Wales.PA Video/PA Images via Getty Images

PA Video/PA Images via Getty Images

“Jevon liked to socialize with his friends. He was a very loving son," she wrote, reported theTimes.

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In another tribute, Owen’s mother, Crystal, said that her son was “perfect from the minute he came into the world and continued to be until he was tragically taken from us,” according to the BBC.

“Every parent’s worst nightmare came true,” she said, adding that their family had “a lifetime of grieving the life he should be living.”

Written tributes at Shrewsbury Abbey for the four teenagers.Jacob King/PA Images via Getty

Jacob King/PA Images via Getty

Meanwhile, Morris’ parents, Dominic and Sarah, remembered their son as having a “thirst for life.”“No words can express our loss,” they shared. “He was happy and looking forward to the weekend. The world is shattered, bent and crooked now. We know what he went on to do would have been wonderful.”

source: people.com