Ethan Lourens, 20, was killed in a road-from-hell smash on Saturday. The 20-year-old, God-fearing Hoërskool Waterkloof alumnus wanted to one day open his own restaurant and grow it into a successful franchise. But, two days after Christmas, those dreams died with him when he was killed in afiery head-on car crashalongside his cousin, Claryke, and her newlywed husband, Zane Hilton.
The three were returning home from a holiday in Ballito when the incident happened on the N3 in the Free State. Paramedics declared the three dead at the scene, while the truck driver was treated for minor injuries before being taken to the nearest hospital. For those who worked alongside Lourens, of Pretoria, the loss was almost impossible to comprehend.
He had only recently completed his second year of studies yet was already managing a restaurant — an uncommon achievement for someone barely out of school. Lourens’ friend and colleague, Tanya van den Berg, said she was still coming to terms with what had happened. A tragic head-on collision on the N3 highway on Saturday claimed three lives including a young Pretoria newlywed couple.
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Picture: x.com/centralnewsz She said they had known each other for a long time and even studied together. “Then I got a job at a restaurant, and he was also looking for work, so I introduced him to the restaurant where I was working, and he started working there as well,” she told IOL on Tuesday. “Later, my parents emigrated to Angola, so I was living alone, and he didn’t have parents, so we kind of became each other’s parents, if I can say it like that.”
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