'I lost a bright kid,' crash victim's father says

The Winnipeg father of a 19-year-old killed by an alleged drunk driver this weekend is expressing shock at his family's sudden loss of a bright and loved young woman.

Senhit Mehari and a 17-year-old female friend were killed in a crash at Bishop Grandin Boulevard and St. Mary's Road just before 3 a.m. CT Sunday.

An 18-year-old woman — another friend of Senhit's — remains in hospital in critical condition.

"I lost a bright kid, and for me, this is really horrible [that] this happened to my family," Yohannes Mehari told CBC News in an interview at his St. Vital-area home. In the background as he spoke, loud wailing could be heard coming from another room.

Mehari said Senhit had been at home all day Saturday studying until four friends turned up in Halloween costumes just before midnight. She went out with them, but he didn't know where, he said.

"I had to let her go because she was studying the whole day, after all," he said.

He never saw her again.

He said he got a telephone call at 3:04 a.m. Sunday from police saying his daughter had been in an accident. She died Sunday in hospital.

Mehari said Senhit was exceptionally bright and was in her second year of studying business administration in university, he said.

She was generous with her time and volunteered extensively, he said.

The family of the 17-year-old who died has asked for privacy.

Change legal drinking age: MADD

Police have arrested a 17-year-old girl in connection to the crash, saying she was behind the wheel of the car that slammed into the one carrying the victims. She faces criminal negligence and impaired-driving-related charges.

News that an underage drinker is suspected of killing the victims has the head of the Manitoba chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving calling for an increase to the age people are allowed to consume alcohol in the province.

Doug Mowbray said he was devastated to hear of the crash and said it's too easy for people under 18 to get their hands on liquor.

"I really wonder if the age of drinking shouldn't go up to 21 because it is so easy for students in high schools right now when it's 18," he said. "Because there's kids that are 18 that are in school [and] they buy the liquor for the weekend."

People who supply liquor to underage kids should be prosecuted, he said.

Mowbray added that a longer graduated license period for new drivers may also help decrease these kinds of crashes.