Heartbreak as new father, 16, dies in head-on crash with woman, 67, driving the wrong way down major highway at 80mph at 3am - as horrifying pictures show their mangled wrecked cars

A teenage father has died in a horrific head-on crash with a woman who was driving the wrong way down a major highway at 3am in California. 

Shocking photographs show the mangled vehicles in the aftermath of the collision which took the lives of Thomas Ryder Shoup, 16, and Eileen Crawford, 67. 

Shoup, known as Ryder Day, was described as 'the sweetest kid' by relatives, while Crawford had been undergoing chemotherapy for cancer, according to friends. 

California Highway Patrol said Crawford's Honda Civic was traveling the wrong way at 75-80mph down the Interstate 5 in southern California on April 10. 

She collided head-on with the Dodger Challenger driven by Ryder, a 10th-grader at Mar Vista High School who has a baby son called Marcelo. 

The Dodge Challenger caught fire and quickly became fully engulfed by flames, and both drivers became trapped in their cars before dying at the scene, CHP said.  

'Ryder was the sweetest kid, and touched the lives of everyone who had the pleasure of knowing him,' a fundraiser for his family reads. 

'Ryder has been surrounded by so much love since the day he was born and could light up a room with his infectious smile.

'He was able to accomplish so much at just 16 years old and leaves behind his son Marcelo, and his girlfriend Eliana, who meant the world to Ryder.'

The City of Imperial Beach, where Ryder lived, shared a statement remembering him as a popular teenager who was on the city's junior lifeguard program. 

'His instructors knew him as a great kid who was well liked. Ryder was very athletic, competitive, and always had a smile on his face,' officials said. 

'When I found out, my heart dropped,' Ryder's friend, Gilbert Solis said. 

'He would always have a smile on that face on the field or on the sideline. He would always have a big white smile on his face.' 

The scene of the crash, on the I-5 near the San Ysidro Port of Entry, is littered with debris and the two vehicles at the scene were almost completely destroyed. 

It is not clear how Crawford began traveling the wrong way down the highway, but her car had been hurtling in that direction for around six miles before the crash. 

The CHP said concerned motorists had alerted them about the Honda traveling the wrong way, but the crash happened just three minutes after the first 911 call.  

Her neighbor Francisco Beltran said that she had been undergoing radiation treatment for cancer and was sometimes forgetful. 

'Sometimes, she went south, you know, kind of blank-minded and just take off,' Beltran told NBC. 

A toxicology report to determine whether alcohol or drugs were a factor in the crash is yet to be released.