'Put your hard hats out': Devastated locals pay tribute to four tradies lost in Penola crash

A social media movement is paying tribute to four young tradies who lost their lives in a horror smash in South Australia’s south-east over the weekend.

The four co-workers from Tabeel Trading - Steven Whitehead, Reece Wilkinson, Chris Sylvester and Nick Roser - died when their car crashed through a guard rail on the Riddoch Highway in Penola in the early hours of Saturday morning. 

Residents around Mount Gambier and the surrounding areas are encouraged today to put out their hard hats in respect for the men.

“I walk around here in a daze today and yesterday, I’m gutted, I just can’t believe it,” Stephen Sylvester, the father of 17-year-old Chris, told 9NEWS yesterday.

Friends and family visited the Penola crash site over the weekend to lay their floral tributes at the site where the co-workers lost their lives.