COLUMBUS, Ohio — A vigil was held Saturday at Saint Luke's Lutheran Church in Columbus for community members and family to remember two teenagers from Blacklick, one week after a pickup truck they were traveling in crashed into frozen water.
Feixiang Friend, 17, and Joshua Friend, 13, were killed after the Ford F-150 they were in lost control on a patch of ice entering Interstate 670 near the Dublin Road on-ramp, according to Columbus Police.
Police said the truck jumped a concrete barrier before coming to rest on its roof in the water. Feixiang and Joshua were pronounced dead at the hospital.
The Friend family says Feixiang was quiet and artistic. He played the flute in the Gahanna Lincoln High School marching band.
Joshua played the clarinet for Gahanna Middle School East. Joshua was ‘full of energy and the glue that bonded everyone together,’ according to family.
Todd Friend, 64, and another 13-year-old family member were released from the hospital following the crash.
The family says Todd is extremely grateful for the response from police officers, firefighters and medics. The family said staff at OhioHealth Grant Medical Center, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, and Nationwide Children's Hospital were ‘fantastic.’
Todd remembers an officer telling him to grab his duty belt to help him up the embankment after being rescued from the vehicle. The family is also appreciative to the driver who stopped and called 911.
A private service will be held at Saint Luke Lutheran Church on March 2 for Feixiang and Joshua. Feixiang would have turned 18 on that day.