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Best friends out celebrating birthday hit by drunk driver

Two young women were hit by a drink-driver while out celebrating a birthday, leaving one of them dead and the other braindead.

Brenda Joubert, 22, whose birthday the pair were celebrating, was declared dead and her best friend Melany Dalmau, 21, has been declared brain dead after the horrific incident outside a nightclub in the town of El Talar, in Buenos Aires, on Sunday November 20.

The pair, who had been best friends for years, had been dancing with two friends when they left the club. They were hit by the vehicle, which did not stop, leaving the two young women lying in the street.

Melany Dalmau and Brenda Joubert smile for a photo
Melany Dalmau (left) and Brenda Joubert were celebrating Brenda's birthday when they were hit by a car while leaving a nightclub. Source: Newsflash

The suspect, named as Matias Leonardo Martinez, 31, reportedly fled the scene in his Citroen C3 before turning himself in a few hours later, with the authorities still detecting almost triple the legal amount of alcohol in his blood.

The suspect told police officers that he had "lost control" of the vehicle.

Martinez has been remanded in custody and is expected to be charged with two counts of homicide once Melany is taken off life support.

The investigation, which is ongoing, is being handled by prosecutor Maria Virginia Toso.

Best friends killed in crash one year ago

The horrific accident comes almost exactly a year after two other best friends were killed in a car accident on November 25, 2021, in the UK.

Ellie Crossley and Rebecca Doughty, both aged 20, were travelling home from a Christmas shopping trip about 9.30pm when their Citroen collided with a blue BMW on a road near the border of Wales and England.

- Newsflash

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