Thomas Brown updated his status on Facebook early Saturday morning by resharing a humorous post about the love for fast driving: “Me: I’m gonna drive normal today. Inner me: Hit ‘boost’ and redline every gear.”

An hour later, Brown’s life was cut short when he lost control of his car in Delmar at about 3:20 a.m. and crashed into trees. He was 20.

Police can tell from the damage to the car that Brown was traveling “significantly above the speed limit,” said Bethlehem Police Commander Adam Hornick, who added on Monday that the accident, near the intersection of Bender Lane and Stonewall Lane, was still under investigation.

Brown had worked as a valet for Goldstein Subaru, his Facebook page said. (See related obituary.)

Brown’s sister set up a GoFundMe page to help defray funeral expenses; in it, she said that the car was a Subaru, a “2002 bug-eye WRX Impreza.” She called it his “prized possession” and wrote, “This vehicle, not only was his life, but was his soul.”

Brown was traveling northbound on Bender Lane, returning home from an acquaintance’s house, said Hornick. There is no indication, he said, that either drugs or alcohol were involved.

When Brown lost control, the officer said, he passed into the oncoming lane, “took down the street sign for Stonewall Lane,” and went into the trees on the opposite side of the road.

Two different 911 calls came in “almost instantly,” said Hornick, both describing a car traveling at an “extremely high rate of speed” and then the loud crash. One caller had been in a driveway; the other had been inside a residence and had gone out to see what happened and found the crash site.

The car, said Hornick, was broken into two parts. The entire back of the car, including the back seats and the trunk, were in the roadway, while the front had traveled forward into the trees.

Brown lived on West Lydius Street in Guilderland, say Bethlehem Police.

Brown, who had been alone in the vehicle, was extricated and taken to Albany Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead a short time later, according to police. He had been wearing a seatbelt at the time of the crash, Hornick said.

Brown had turned 20 just four days before the accident.

Hornick said that the “other side” of Bender Lane — between the Delmar Bypass and Route 9W has for many years been referred to as “the Bender Challenge,” and noted that people have “challenged themselves” to see how fast they can drive its “twisty turny” curves. But the part of the road that Brown was on, the officer said, was “relatively straight” and “strictly residential.”