Residents in a Moray community have rallied round two families who have been stricken by a fatal car crash.
Buckie High pupil, Neringa Narusyte, 14, died in the accident on Wednesday night.
Her school friend, Nyah Mckay, 14, is still in hospital in Glasgow with life-threatening injuries.
As news spread of the tragedy, concerned locals established a crowdfunding campaign with the aim of raising £,2000 for the families affected.
Within eight hours of the appeal being launched by Buckie resident Kenny Farren, whose daughter goes to the same school as the victims, the target had been surpassed with more than £2500 pledged by 150 people.
Mr Farren said: “We, as a small community, would just like to try and help to ease the burden of two families in their time of need.
“One of them has just lost their 14-year-old daughter in a tragic accident and the other is having to travel to hospital 200 miles away as their daughter fights for her life due to the same accident.”
He added: “The generosity of people from near and far to complete strangers never fails to amaze me in situations like this.”
Yesterday, fresh flowers were laid at the roadside of the B9016 where the Buckpool teenager lost her life. Messages for Neringa told her to “sleep tight” and explained she was “gone too soon”.
Friends have continued to pay tribute to the popular teenager on social media. A song uploaded in her memory, entitled RIP Ninga, has been played more than 11,000 times.
Signs have now been put in place at the roadside by police to appeal for information from anyone who saw either vehicle before the crash at 10.30pm on Wednesday night.
Two other teenagers in the Vauxhall Corsa were seriously hurt after the collision with a Nissan Terrano, whose 42-year-old driver sustained minor injuries.
Buckie councillor Gordon McDonald has long campaigned for improvements to be made to the bends on the road.
He said: “It’s the main route into Buckie, so it’s important from an infrastructure point of view, but, over and above that, it is extremely dangerous.
“It’s got a bad history of crashes. We were going to make improvements at the exact spot until the council’s plans changed.”
