When Tyler Shaw left Spencer Haywood’s house Monday night, the two made plans, as they often did, to see each other again.
The childhood friends had spent the night playing hockey video games at Haywood’s place in Bow. Haywood, 21, was on a winning streak, and he joked that he would beat Shaw next time they played, too.
“Yeah, right. You couldn’t beat me,” 20-year-old Shaw quipped back, before leaving about 9 p.m. for his house on East Side Drive in Concord.
The friends agreed to meet up to go fishing later in the week. Before he drove away, Shaw had grabbed Haywood’s trash without being asked to, and threw it in the bed of his 2008 Chevrolet Silverado.
Haywood, who has known Shaw since elementary school, said Shaw often did little things like that to help his friends.
A few minutes later, Shaw was driving by Exit 1 in Bow when he was hit by another vehicle that failed to stop at the end of the Interstate 89 off-ramp, police said. He was dead when police arrived.
Joseph Leonard Jr., age 35, of Derry was driving South on Interstate 89 in a 2017 Nissan Altima about 9:20 p.m. Monday night when he took the exit and failed to stop at the end of the ramp, according to New Hampshire State Police.
The crash on Logging Hill Road caused Shaw’s truck to roll over on its driver’s side, partially ejecting him, police said.
Friend Jacob Clark, 23, found out about Shaw’s death early Tuesday, and he said he’s still processing the loss.
“I’m kind of still in shock,” he said. “It doesn’t make sense.”
Clark worked for two years with Shaw at R.S. Audley Inc., a construction company in Bow, and he said he talked to Shaw daily about working out and traveling.
“He would always say to me, ‘Life’s too short, and the world is too gorgeous,’ ” Clark said. “He always told me he wanted to go out to Montana and go hunting and fishing. He used to show me pictures from places all around the world he wanted to go.”
“It’s so sad to think now he won’t be able to do those things,” Clark said.
Shaw’s loved ones set up a white cross at the site of the crash Tuesday surrounded by photos of him at his prom and his Concord High School graduation in 2015. Others had left a gold cross chain, packs of Grizzly long-cut tobacco and a fishing rod.
“We spent a lot of time fishing whenever we could get out at his grandparents’ place in Bow Lake,” said Shaw’s friend Bill Kelso, who was at the crash site Tuesday. “Tyler was a good friend, and I’ll miss him.”
Leonard was taken to Concord Hospital for injuries deemed serious but not life-threatening. Both vehicles came to rest off the roadway.
Due to the severity of the crash, Bow police requested the assistance of the New Hampshire State Police Collision Analysis and Reconstruction Unit.
Logging Hill Road was closed for several hours as police worked the scene. The crash remains under investigation.
(Leah Willingham can be reached at 369-3322, lwillingham@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @LeahMWillingham.)