Family desperate for answers over hit-and-run death

The parents of a boy who died on a country road the day before his 18th birthday are appealing for information.

Dylan Price was found in the early hours of 19 September and police believe he was hit by a vehicle just outside Bishop’s Castle in Shropshire.

In a plea to the driver, Louise Price, his mother, said: “We need a bit of closure, surely they need to tell us?”

Dylan’s parents said he had spent the day before his birthday playing rugby, before going to a number of parties.

“He was trying to fit everybody in,” Mrs Price said.

One of Dylan’s sisters gave him a lift to the pub and the last thing she told him was to call her if he needed a lift home, his mother said.

She added she had told her son that “we might shout at you in the morning, but we need to get you home, we need to get you safe”.

“But he didn’t make that phone call – he decided he’d walk home.”

Dylan was later found dead on Brampton Road, close to his home, and West Mercia Police said it appeared he had been struck by a vehicle while walking along the road.

His sister Livvi Price said not knowing the full story made the death “so hard to process”.

His mother added: “How can you not tell anybody? Because having that on your own shoulders must be absolutely horrendous.”

She is undergoing cancer treatment and said she feared the stress of the last week would affect her health.

Dylan’s father, Darren Price, said the death had affected the whole community.

“People walk home from the pub, from dances, from everything all the time at the weekend and I think it’s very much shocked them and scared them,” he said.

Mr Price said the family was also looking to set up something permanent in Dylan’s name, such as a foundation, and there were plans to play rugby matches in his memory.

Both he and his son were keen rugby players and Mr Price said this season was to be the first that they would play competitive rugby together.

“We’d played two games together this year and the positions we played, we were next door to each other.

“So I’ll take a lot of comfort, although they were small, for those two games that we did play.”