The original version of this article was published on The Inertia.
A couple who ran a popular off-roading YouTube channel are dead after they crashed in British Columbia’s Purcell Mountains this month. Matthew Yeomans and Stacey Tourout were found by search crews on August 7, and likely died in an off-roading accident.
The couple’s YouTube channel, Toyota World Runners, has 206,000 subscribers. They filmed and shared overland adventures all over the world in an overlanding rig they built themselves, traveling from British Columbia to Brazil via the Pan-American Highway, a network of roads stretching from Alaska to Argentina.
“Please keep us and them in your thoughts and prayers as we navigate this devastating end to an amazing love story,” Colleen Tourout, Stacey’s mother, wrote on social media. “They are together forever as we knew they would always be.”
Few Details on Accident
According to the CBC, the couple’s vehicle was found August 7 by Kaslo Search and Rescue, which works out of a tiny town near Nelson, British Columbia. The vehicle was nearly 700 feet down a steep slope.
Yeomans was deceased when the search crews found him. Tuorout was alive when search crews reached her, but she died after a helicopter airlifted her from the scene.
The exact cause of the accident remains unclear, according to Mark Jennings-Bates, a manager with Kaslo SAR. However, he suspects the cause was likely a loss of control on rough terrain. He also told the CBC that SAR teams have responded to multiple calls in the area, which he described as treacherous.
“It was very clear that there had been a vehicle rollover,” said Jennings-Bates. “There was an ejection, and that person had no vital signs.”
The news has hit the off-roading community hard, and condolences are flooding in.
“Matt and Stacy were fun loving adventure seekers with bright futures,” wrote Dirt Lifestyle, another off-roading YouTube channel, in the description for a memorial video you can see below. “Let’s celebrate their lives and remember their legacy the way they would have wanted. I was lucky to have known such great people!”
The Story Till Now, another YouTube channel dedicated to off-roading, also lamented the couple’s tragic death. The channel’s creator, Shaun, said he discussed a joint project with Yeomans the day before the couple died.
“We joked about how we would have finally met up the next day if not for my Jeep breaking down, but talked about getting some firm plans on the books for a trip next month,” Shaun wrote on Facebook. “They tragically passed away that very next day in an accident, and I’m just devastated over it. They were so young and full of life, so talented, and this is a huge loss for our off-road community, their friends and family, and the world.”
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