Man tried to take keys off teens in the lead-up to fatal Boxing Day crash

Flowers and tributes at the scene of a crash that killed three teenagers near Leeston in Canterbury. Photo / Kurt Bayer

A camper who confronted a group of teens tried to take their car keys from them about an hour before they died in a Boxing Day car crash.

Cole Troy Hull, Samuel James Drost and Lily Frances Moore, all 15, died when the car they were in hit a raised roadside berm at the western end of Harts Rd, near Leeston, Canterbury.

The car appeared to have become airborne before launching across Southbridge Sedgemere Rd before it smashed through a farm fence and into a macrocarpa hedge, narrowly missing a concrete power pole.

An unlicensed 14-year-old driver was behind the wheel. He survived the crash but was taken to hospital with serious injuries.

Another 14-year-old, the only occupant wearing a seatbelt, suffered minor injuries and was discharged from hospital on Boxing Day.

One of the survivors reportedly told friends there had been a confrontation with another group at a campground near Lake Ellesmere before the crash, Fairfax reported.

He said the friends were being chased as they left the campground so sped up.

The scene of a crash that killed three teenagers near Leeston. Photo / Kurt Bayer

A man who confronted the group, who did not wish to be named, told Fairfax the teens were driving over 100km/h on gravel at the Lakeside Domain campground about 1am on Monday.

"They were spitting gravel the whole way around and our tents are a couple of metres from the road. If they came through there our kids were dead," he said.

"We actually tried to steal keys from the car to stop them from driving out of here but it was a car that had a proximity key so there was no key in the ignition and at that time we didn't think of popping the bonnet and removing the spark plugs.

"It's been unfortunate that we weren't able to stop them but there was definitely no one here that chased them."

A police spokesman said there were "certainly words exchanged" between the teenagers and another group, but he was not prepared to comment further.

Family and friends of the three teens killed in the horror smash have been visiting the crash site in Canterbury the day after the crash.

Flowers, messages and special tributes have been left at the site.

"Love you, Lily," one woman said at the site today.

There were tears and hugs as they examined the site and talked through what had happened.

Others politely declined to comment, saying at the time it was too early to speak publicly about their loss.