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Christopher McNutt stopped breathing in childbirth and his mother was in medical distress, said Graham Hill, relaying the sad irony that his stepson survived against all odds only to die in a car crash.

“It makes no sense,” said Hill, 56, speaking by phone from Lethbridge, Alta.

“He’s my wife Twyla’s miracle baby and to have him gone like this is nuts,” Hill said. “We’re numb today, and we’ll be numb tomorrow. We’re just going through the motions.”

Christopher McNutt, 31, died in an early morning crash on Thursday in Saanich, his family confirmed.

Saanich police responded to a call about a two-vehicle crash on West Saanich Road near ­Prospect Lake Road at 7:35 a.m.

The driver of a small black Honda CRX died at the scene, police said, while the driver of a white Dodge Ram pickup truck was taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries, police said.

Neither driver had passengers.

Hill said the family has been told neither speed nor alcohol appear to have contributed to the crash.

Twyla McNutt-Hill, a retired nurse, moved from Amherst, Nova Scotia to the capital region when her son was about four years old and settled here. She met Hill, a UPS courier driver, in 2010. The couple married the next year. They had two miscarriages. That has laid the foundation for the grief they feel today, Hill said. Hill’s biological son, also named Christopher, is about two years younger.

McNutt-Hill recalls her son climbing before he could walk and as a toddler piling up boxes at the front door and using a golf club to unhinge the chain lock. He would also try to climb out the window.

His love of cars and his knack for tinkering with machines and figuring out how to put them back together “not always 100 per cent the way they were but they always worked” grew with age and became his ­livelihood.

Hill, who has set up a Go Fund Me page to raise funds for the funeral, said his stepson worked for Brentwood Auto & Metal Recyclers, who made a large donation, and had a variety of side hustles fixing cars and video game players and ­computers.

More importantly, McNutt was a kind person: “He was so willing to do anything for anybody, he was so giving of himself, sometimes frustratingly so in that you wondered if he was being taken advantage of but to him it didn’t matter, he helped at the drop of a hat,” Hill said.

In 2012 McNutt’s mother and stepfather moved to Alberta. McNutt remained in Saanich, on the same property as his father Warren Stan Gauthier, living in a rental unit with his fiancée Kristy Bedwell.

Jody Bedwell has organized a Go Fund Me fundraiser on behalf of her sister Kristy, 32, whose birthday is Wednesday. Kristy, who works for Onside Restoration, will need ­financial help through the next few months, he sister said.

Christopher McNutt and Kristy Bedwell, 32, have been sweethearts since they met at Vic High.

Jody Bedwell described McNutt as “a big loveable teddy bear” who was always nice and didn’t have a mean bone in his body.

“She’s shell shocked, it still doesn’t feel real,” Bedwell said of Kristy. “It’s one breath at a time.”

“Kristy is my sister and she’s the most beautiful person with such a big heart and wouldn’t ask for anything,” Bedwell wrote on the fundraising page. “I just want her not to have to worry about anything during this tough time.”

Police continue to investigate the cause of the crash. Anyone with information is asked to call police at 250-475-4321.

ceharnett@timescolonist.com