Two royal family members from the South Pacific island nation of Tonga were killed when a teenager racing her car crashed into their sport utility vehicle, authorities said.
Prince Tu'ipelehake, 56, and Princess Kaimana, 46, died in Wednesday night's freeway crash in Menlo Park, California, about 50km south of San Francisco, according to Senter Uhilamoelangi, a distant relative and longtime friend of the prince.
Uhilamoelangi, 59, said on Thursday that the couple had arrived in the San Francisco Bay area earlier this week to discuss political reforms in Tonga with members of the region's Tongan community. Uhilamoelangi, a Tonga native and East Palo Alto resident, helped arrange the visit.
Tu'ipelehake, a nephew of 88-year-old King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV, was the leading reformist in the royal family. He was head of a national committee studying democratic reforms for the kingdom.
"His voice we'll never hear again, but his legacy is going to live on," Uhilamoelangi said. "He was a good leader because he took the voice of the people all the way to the House of Parliament and carried it all the way to the king."
The deaths stunned the Tongan community, which was just finishing celebrations of ailing King Tupou IV's birthday on Tuesday.
The prince had been scheduled to speak at the First Tongan United Methodist Church in San Bruno on Thursday night, but the event turned into a memorial service.
The prince's sister, Princess Mele Siuilikutapu Kalaniuvalu Fotofili, sat on the stage crying throughout the service, attended to be about 70 people who sang hymns and talked about the prince.
"He was very popular. This is a great loss for the country," said Satai Pale, the secretary of the National Committee of the Kingdom of Tonga on Political Reform.
San Bruno was supposed to be the first of many stops for the prince at Tongan communities in the US on this trip.
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