A sister of one of three victims killed when their vehicle slammed into a light structure said she wasn't shocked her brother died in a high-speed crash.

"The thing that really makes me feel much better about this is they died doing what they loved to do -- they were drinking, they were going fast and they were together," Lorie Flaherty told the Boulder Daily Camera. "It gives me comfort, it does, to know those three things."

Michael Martin Flaherty, 21, idolized NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt and decorated his room with model cars and pictures of racers, his family said. His two closest friends -- Lucas Raymond Snyder and Amber Dawn Kowalski -- also shared his love for speed, friends told the newspaper.

Flaherty was blind in one eye, and unable to drive but he loved being a passenger in a fast car, his sister said. She said he would often sit with her as they raced at Bandimere Speedway.

His best friend since sixth grade, 21-year-old Snyder, also had speed and automobiles in his system. He was a driver for a lumber company and wanted to make a career in commercial driving, his mother Judy Snyder said.

Kowalski, the female in the group, loved to race cars as well, her ex-boyfriend told the paper. She bought the turbo-charged Subaru Impreza WRX a year ago and had called it "her baby."

Police have not said who was behind the wheel of the sports car when it crashed early Friday morning, but Flaherty's father said he doesn't harbor ill will toward that person.

"It was a bad decision," David Flaherty said. "If I heard they were going that fast, and they hadn't crashed, I would have chewed them out."

The three graduates of Centaurus High School were killed instantly last Friday morning when their Subaru Impreza WRX lost control on McCaslin Boulevard and slammed into a light pole structure at West Cherry Street. The impact sliced the car in half and caused the car to "disintegrate," police had said.

Investigators said it was traveling between 101 and 109 mph.

All three were thrown from the vehicles and died at the scene.

Lorie Flaherty said the three friends had been drinking and hanging out at the Old Chicago in Superior Thursday night before the fatal crash.