FAMILIES and friends are mourning the deaths of two young men killed in two separate tragic accidents.

The funeral of 18-year-old Ryde Hutchinson, of Goudhurst Road, Twydall, Gillingham, will take place tomorrow. He died after a car crash in south east London last Monday.

And Richard King, 21, of Hards Town, Chatham, died in a freak accident when a two-tonne tree fell on the lorry he was in near Sevenoaks last Thursday.

Ryde's mother Barbara told Medway Today: "He was a fun-loving, big-hearted lad and he hated anyone being unhappy. That's why I want people to celebrate his life at the funeral rather than grieve over his passing.''

Mourners are asked to be seated at the service at Holy Trinity Church, Twydall, at 1pm. The hearse used will be a 1959 Cadillac, a replica of the car used in the American film Ghostbusters, which Ryde and his brother Ross, 24, were restoring. Music at the service will include No Surprises by Radiohead, Last Train to Clarksville by The Monkees and the music from Star Wars.

Ryde, a student at Greenwich University, was a passenger in a Fiat Cinquecento which was in collision with a black cab in Blackheath. Another young man and a woman were also killed. The fourth occupant, a girl, survived.

Details of Richard King's funeral next Thursday are still being arranged. The family company he worked for, MTS Cleansing Services LTD of Hoo Marina Park, will close that day so staff can attend.

Richard was killed when a oak tree fell on the cab he was in after stopping in a lay-by for a rest. Driver Derek Hart, from Glanville Road, Strood, escaped unhurt.