An 18-year-old South Surrey high school student was killed in a single-vehicle ATV crash Saturday afternoon in Roberts Creek.
Sunshine Coast RCMP say the victim was driving the ATV on a well-used forest service road, at around 2 p.m., when he collided with a concrete barrier near a bridge.
The impact threw the driver approximately 30 feet down a ravine. Evacuated from the area by air ambulance, he was flown on to Vancouver General Hospital, but did not survive his injuries.
An experienced ATV user, he had been out with a group of six riders – one of them a family friend he was visiting on the Sunshine Coast – when the accident occurred.
Police have not released the identity of the victim, pending conclusion of a coroner's investigation, but say it appears to have been a straightforward accident, without contributing circumstances such as alcohol, weather or road conditions.
"Thousands of riders have gone past that spot without incident, but if you hit it a certain way, a rut or something could throw someone off-track," said Cst. Harrison Mohr of Sunshine Coast RCMP.