A TEENAGER has died and another young man was left fighting for life after a car crashed into a tree in the middle of the night.

Family and friends are coming to terms with the death of the young man who died, aged in his late teens, from Lyme Regis.

It is understood he is a former student of the town’s Woodroffe School.

Police have launched an investigation into the single vehicle fatal collision – which officers said happened on a damp, unlit country road – in the early hours of Saturday, on the Dorset-Devon border.

An appeal for witnesses has been issued as part of the inquiry.

Officers said a man from the Lyme Regis area, believed to be in his late teens, who was a passenger in the car, was sadly pronounced dead at the scene of the crash.

Another teenager who had been driving the car suffered serious injuries and was airlifted to hospital in Plymouth by a police helicopter.

His condition at the weekend was described as ‘critical’.

The crash involving one car, a dark coloured Honda Civic, happened on the A3052 Sidmouth Road west of Lyme Regis, just over the Devon border at a location known as Ware Cross.

A Devon and Cornwall Police spokesman said: “At approximately 12.29am on Saturday, December 17 2016 a single vehicle collision occurred on the A3052, Devon and Dorset border, Ware Cross where a dark coloured Honda Civic was in collision with a tree.

“At the time of the collision the road surface was damp, it was dark and the road was unlit.

“Sadly, as a result of this collision, the front seat passenger, a male from the Lyme Regis area, passed away at the scene.

“Another male was conveyed by National Police Air Service to Derriford Hospital where he is in a critical condition.”

The spokesman added: “A specialist forensic investigation of the scene took place, resulting in the A3052 being closed for approximately nine hours.

“Police from the Alliance Roads Policing Team are appealing for witnesses to this incident to contact them on telephone 101 quoting log number DCP – 20161217- 0030.”

The road, which was closed between the Gore Lane junction and the Shire Lane junction, was reopened around 10am on Saturday.