SAM JOHNSON would fly a toy aeroplane over his plasticine model of the Big Apple's skyscrapers, dreaming of the day he would visit the real New York. when the 17-year-old was killed after being hit by a car at Main North Rd, Salisbury Park, on Tuesday nig

The Golden Grove High School student had a passion for foreign places and hoped to one day travel the world. That dream came to an abrupt end .......

"I dropped him off on Main North Rd to meet some friends," she said.

"Basically my other friend Steve got out of the car and Sam was in the front seat and got out to get his chocolate cake out of the back of the car."

It was then that Sam was struck by a car travelling north. "He was leaning half in and half out and that's when it happened.

"He meant so much to all of us, words are not enough to describe it and he'll be in our hearts forever."

Sam was rushed to the Royal Adelaide Hospital in a critical condition with head and chest injuries but was taken off life support the next day.

His death has devastated the tight-knit high school and Grove community.

"He was always making people laugh and he was the type of guy who was friends with everyone," friend and classmate Cheyenne Whittaker said.

"If Sam loved something, he really loved it and he had obsessions with things like foreign places and people, in particular New York and Africa," Brittany Greig, 17, added. "Whenever he met someone from a different country, he''d go to the travel agent and get brochures on that place ... he even started learning Afrikaans.

"In his room he ... made the city of New York out of plasticine and there were about 30 odd little buildings that''s how much he loved the place."

Jess: "I bought him a toy plane from Melbourne and he''d fly the plane over the buildings, he just loved the atmosphere of New York, the city life." A keen art and tourism student, Sam decided this year he would pursue a career which allowed him to travel, as a pilot or air steward. The Salisbury Park teenager, who worked part-time at a recycling depot, had saved his money for a trip to Scotland at the end of the year. Golden Grove High principle Jude Leak described Sam as mature student with a love for life, family and friends.

"It''s absolutely tragic. ... he had a natural maturity beyond his years, an awareness of life and an intuitive nature, that is how he was seen by every single teacher.

"Every single person who knew him has said what a wonderful, sensitive, thoughtful, fun, intelligent, creative and decent young man he was."

Ms Leak said Sam's mother, Fiona Logan and younger sister Gemma, who is in Year 9, had shown remarkable resilience and courage. The school will plant a peace rose in the school gardens with a plaque in Sam's memory.

Hundreds of students, family and friends attended Sam's funeral at the Harrison Funeral Chapel, Golden Grove on Monday (May 5). The school is offering students counselling.

Police have spoken to a 28-year-old Blair Athol man over the incident but no charges had been laid at presstime.