KEY BISCAYNE, Fla. – Loved ones said goodbye Monday to a college freshman who lost her life on New Year's Day when the driver of a Porsche convertible lost control of the car and crashed into numerous trees in Key Biscayne.
"She lived a life worth living," Daniela Benavides' friend, Paula Perez, said. "She lived a life of immense happiness and I just hope that her family knows that and her family is strong during this time."
Hundreds of people went to St. Agnes Catholic Church to say goodbye to Benavides.
"Every time you saw her, she had a smile from here to here. A beautiful girl inside and out," Edgar Moratinos said.
The 18-year-old had graduated from Gulliver Preparatory last spring and was a freshman at Pepperdine University in California.
Police said she was a passenger in a Porsche that crashed into several trees and a mailbox on Harbor Drive.
"It was such a horrific impact that there was very little to protect the passengers inside the car," Key Biscayne Police Chief Charles Press said.
The driver, Isaias Medina, 17, and the front-seat passenger, Mathew Saldana, 17, were taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital with head injuries.
They have both been released from the hospital, and Saldana attended Monday's funeral.
"I didn't know her that well. I met her that night," Saldana told Local 10 News reporter Michael Seiden.
Friends of the victims told Seiden that the crash happened after the three spent the night partying with friends to ring in the New Year.
"Obviously, this is a horrific tragedy on New Year's Day (and) something that we all worry about as parents and as police officers and scares us to death," Press said. "We do everything we can to educate our kids and to talk to them about the dangers of getting in these cars and not taking transportation home, but it's Miami. It's young people and they make decisions sometimes that, unfortunately here, left a family facing a lifetime of tragedy."
Detectives said speed was definitely a factor in the crash and are working to determine whether alcohol or drugs played a role.