PARENTS and friends of a teenager have paid touching tributes after he died in a road crash just days before his 19th birthday.

William Andrews died in the crash at about 9.40pm on Saturday after a white Ford Escort van carrying four passengers left the road and struck a tree in Leighams Road, Bicknacre.

William, of Shirebourn Vale, South Woodham Ferrers died at the scene.

Another man was taken to hospital with serious but non-life threatening injuries and two others required treatment for minor injuries.

Dozens of friends have paid tribute to the “lovely and polite” lad, who was “one in a million” on his public Facebook wall.

His parents Karen Munro and Michael Andrews said: “William started his school life at Woodville Primary and then attended William de Ferrers School in South Woodham Ferrers.

“He was then looking forward to a bright future in the design and media industry and had just successfully completed a course in digital animation, at South Essex College."

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