Tributes flow for Cheltenham crash victim Paige Dent

The father of a young woman who died in a horror car smash in Melbourne’s south-east has paid tribute to his daughter's wicked sense of humour and appetite for life.

Paige Dent, 25, died when she crashed into a pole outside Southland shopping centre early on Saturday morning.

Police say the Dandenong woman was driving a blue BMW sedan at high speed around 5.30am when it hit a pole on Nepean Highway between Centre Dandenong Road and Bay Road in Cheltenham.

Police at the scene said that speed, drugs and alcohol appear to have been factors in the crash.

Distraught family and friends visited the site of the crash over the weekend, leaving floral tributes by the road.

Ms Dent's father, Michael Dent, said the family has been left shattered by the loss of his daughter, who had a “wicked sense of humour”.

“She was full of life,” Mr Dent told Channel Seven.

“That was the whole thing, right down to probably her last moments in life. She was full of life and you couldn't stop her.”

Ms Dent's death was the first fatality in a horror weekend on Victorian roads that has left four people dead and another man in hospital fighting for his life.

The force of the crash ripped the body of the sedan into two pieces, scattering debris hundreds of metres down the road.

"It's an incredible scene and I've been in the police force for 30 years," Senior Sergeant Warren Francis-Pester told Channel Nine.

“I’ve never seen debris spread over six lanes of highway. The early indications here are that the speed was excessive.”

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