A teenage YouTube celebrity known as McSkillet is believed to have been killed alongside two others when his sports car collided head-on with an SUV in California.
Trevor Heitmann, 18, was behind the wheel of the McLaren supercar during the collision near San Diego, according to ABC news and other news reports, citing California police.
He was driving it in the wrong direction when it hit the SUV on Thursday, killing himself as well as a 43-year-old woman and her 12-year-old daughter.
As a YouTuber, McSkillet gained almost 900,000 followers for his gaming videos and for designing and selling game modifications known as “skins” for the game Counter Strike.
Image:The cars burst into flames following the collision
He was reportedly banned from trading these after becoming involved in a dispute with the game’s owner Valve over gambling involving custom game modifications.
Following the ban he had not uploaded a YouTube video in over five months, and reports suggest that his income had been hit.
Image:McSkillet’s McLaren sportscar, as seen on YouTube
Heitmann’s vehicle had been linked to an incident at Ashley Falls Elementary School, also in San Diego, just half an hour before the crash.
Several students reported that the driver of that car had driven through a fence and then broken a window while no classes were in session.
A spokesperson for California Highway Patrol said: “At this point I don’t have anything to clarify why or what possible made him do what he did, whether he was under the influence at the time, whether he was having any other issues.”
Police said the car was travelling at a very high speed, and witnesses said the vehicles exploded into flames when they crashed.
Image:The roads were closed for almost 10 hours after the crash
The roads around the crash site were shut for almost ten hours during the clean-up and police investigation.
According to the California Highway Patrol, the mother and daughter have yet to be formally identified because of how badly their bodies were burned.
However, reports have identified the two as Aileen and Aryanna Pizarro.
Image:Aryana and Aileen Pizarro were the pair also killed in the crash
A man claiming to be Aileen Pizarro’s son Dominic has opened a crowdfunding page to cover the pair’s funeral expenses.
“Yesterday, both my mother and sister were taken from our family in an instantaneous car accident in San Diego,” the account writes.
“During this time, me, my grandfather, and brother are trying to come to grasp with our new reality and push forward with our lives.”
