A group of teenage friends died after a car drove off the edge of a cliff in Colorado, according to police.
The fatal crash happened late Saturday evening in Grand Junction, about 245 miles outside of Denver, authorities said.
First responders rushed to the scene around 7.45am on Sunday and found the vehicle crashed on the hillside, the Grand Junction Police Department said.
The five victims, all 17-year-old boys, who were residents of Grand Junction, were pronounced dead at the scene.
Three of them were wearing seatbelts, including the driver and front seat passengers. The other two were not wearing seatbelts and were ejected from the car, the Mesa County Coroner’s Office said.
Speed is being investigated as a factor in the crash, police said. It is unclear who the driver was.
A spokesperson with the coroner’s office told the Daily Mail that it is against their policy and state law to release the names of people under the age of 18, but family and friends online have identified the victims.
Braden Taylor, Tristan Tucker, Titus Gould, William Simms, and Tyler Martinez died in the crash, their loved ones said.
Five friends, all 17, died in a car crash on Saturday evening after a vehicle drove off a cliff in Grand JUnction, Colorado
Braden Taylor (left) and Tristen Tucker (right) died in the crash
Each of them were named in heartbreaking posts by their family and friends as the close-knit community tries to wrap its head around the profound loss.
Tucker has been remembered as someone who was ‘full of life, potential, and a free spirit,’ a GoFundMe page read.
He was just about to start his senior year of high school and get his driver’s license, the fundraiser added.
Simms also died in the horror crash, his sister Emily Simms wrote on Facebook.
‘My sweet sweet baby brother and his best friends left this world too soon,’ she added.
His devastated sibling shared a GoFundMe page that she set up to help their grieving family.
‘Our family is heartbroken and trying to process a loss we still cannot fathom. We were all very close, and losing him so suddenly has turned our world upside down,’ Emily wrote on the donation page.
A Meal Train fundraiser has also been launched to help out the Gould family after he died in the tragedy.
Titus Gould also died in the horror crash. He is pictured alongside his mother, Larisa Gould
William Simms (left) and Tyler Martinez (right)
He was also identified in several social media posts, as locals shared their condolences on Facebook for his mother, Larissa Gould.
Larissa has not publicly shared information about her son’s death, but on Monday morning, she updated her profile picture to an image of her and her son.
Several people then flooded her comments with their condolences and well-wishes.
Taylor’s grandfather, Calvin Wilken, confirmed his grandson was one of the five who died in the crash.
‘Very sad news our youngest grandson Braden 17 died in a car rollover down 5 ledges of a very steep drop off over looking the railroad tracks and the Gunnison River,’ Wilken shared alongside an image of Taylor.
‘He was a passenger with 4 of his buddies, all deceased. Just a few blocks from their old house on the ridge top housing development above.’
The final victim has been identified as Tyler Martinez.
His grandmother, Debbie Gallegos Martinez, took to Facebook with a somber post following the accident.
Speed is being investigated as a factor in the crash, police said. It is unclear who the driver was
Three of them were wearing seatbelts, including the driver and front seat passengers. The other two were not wearing seatbelts and were ejected from the car, the coroner’s office said
‘With a heavy heart and tears rolling down my cheek my grandson was one of this [sic] boys,’ she said alongside a link to a local outlet’s article on the tragedy.
Another family member, Angela Chris Martinez, shared another article on her Facebook and said: ‘Please keep our family in your prayers and prayers for the families that lost your boys, this is devastating and heartbreaking.’
Martinez’s mother, Aimee Huffman, has posted pictures of her and her late son on her Facebook page in the days following the tragedy.
Her family and friends have shared their sympathies with her in the comments.
A spokesperson with the Grand Junction Police Department told the Daily Mail the case remains under investigation.
‘These types of cases take quite a bit of time to investigate,’ they added.
