Staff reporter(wp/es):
A young father lies in intensive care fighting for life following a “devastating” car crash in which two of his close friends were killed.
Yousif Al-Mussawi, 26, from Maida Vale, was at the wheel of the BMW when it veered off a dual-carriageway and hit a tree.
Farhad-Zubair Maqbool and Yahya Sharif, both 25 and from Acton, west London, were killed instantly in the accident on the northbound A12 at Ingatestone, near Brentwood, at 11.20pm on Saturday.
The trio had been driving to the Chelmsford campus of Anglia Ruskin University where Mr Sharif is a student, friends said.
Mr Al-Mussawi, who works for Virgin Media, was today being held in an induced coma at Addenbrooke’s hospital in Cambridge having undergone eight hours of surgery.
According to his Facebook profile, he moved to London from Baghdad and studied engineering at Kingston University. He married in 2011 and has a young daughter.
His family today shared a shocking image of the keen footballer on his hospital bed to “spread the word” about his condition.
A GoFundMe page has set up to raise money to support all three families raised more than £7,000 in its first 24 hours.
Omar Elsisi, 23, who studied with Mr Sharif at Anglia Ruskin, told the Standard: “Yahya was a decent man and well-liked among students. He would help anyone without ever asking for something in return.
“He went to London on Saturday morning to get to the barbers for a trim and buy a new jacket. He was aiming to get back in the evening after visiting friends.”
Mr Elsisi said he became concerned for his colleague when he failed to answer messages on WhatsApp on Saturday night.
He said: “The next day he wasn’t online and we all found out on Facebook that they had crashed, we are all devastated.
“Yahya was so bright and friendly, he was aiming for the top achievements on the course.
“He was very young, we are broken up about it. He loved his friends and they were very close.”
Abdifatah Abdi, who created the campaign, wrote: “Three of our friends were driving to Essex when their car lost control and collided with a tree.
“Farhad and Yayha were pronounced dead at the scene, while Yousif underwent eight hours of surgery and is currently in a critical condition.
“They were driving to drop Yayha at his university and there was no other car involved.
“All three were good natured people, they had ambitions for the future, and now the future on this earth is gone for at least two of them.
“While this is so hard to accept, we must channel our feelings at this time to help support their families who we class as our own.”
Anisa Choudhury paid tribute to Mr Maqbool, with whom she had studied at Queen Mary University of London, on Facebook.
She said: “I never in a million years thought you would leave this world so soon.
“You were full of life, ambition and you had so much ahead of you, so many plans, hopes and dreams that have now been cruelly snatched away.
“I wish someone would tell me it wasn’t true, I keep calling your phone waiting for you to pick up but you don’t.
“The world is not the same without you. Life is too short. It could have been any of us in their place.”
DS Damon Bainbridge, of Essex Police’s Serious Collision Investigation Unit, said: “We are appealing for any drivers who were in the area at the time and saw the BMW before the collision.
“We are particularly keen to trace a driver who was travelling ahead of the car and might have seen what happened.”
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