“She was a bright, happy, positive young girl,” he continued.
Erica’s grieving father spoke of her passion for learning and the performing arts.
“She was coming back from an acting course … when it happened,” he said.
Erica and Lisa, who go by the last name Kunimatsu in Japan, were born to a Japanese mother and Australian father before migrating to Australia in 2015.
The pair studied arts and language courses at Flinders University and shared a passion for film.
Erica recently acted in a film screened at the Adelaide Film Festival and in a web series called The Reality of Humanity.
“She was a really polite and positive girl,” Mr Hoy said.
Photographer and friend of the family Peter Hall, who had spoken to Lisa in hospital, was gutted by the tragedy.
“They were soulmates, a unique artistic partnership,” he told The Advertiser.
“I’m just devastated by what has been taken away well before it was time.
“There were more adventures ahead. They came as a package pair – when they were working together, it was truly unique.
“It was like working with one person even though there were two people – and yet they were also individuals in their own right.”
“Theirs was a very special bond.”
Charges as alleged flees crash scene
A Port Adelaide woman has been charged with dangerous driving causing Erica’s death after allegedly fleeing the crash scene.
It’s believed the Red Toyota Prius that Lisa was driving struck an oncoming truck after it was hit by a Holden Cruze.
Erica died at the scene while Lisa and Erica’s boyfriend, Mike Reader, were taken to hospital with serious but non-life threatening injuries.
The driver of the Holden Cruze alleged to have caused the crash, a 38-year-old Port Adelaide woman Carlie Eileen Richards, allegedly fled the scene but was found by police soon after and was charged with causing death by dangerous driving.
She faced a bedside court hearing at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital on Wednesday afternoon after she was deemed too mentally unwell to physically face court.
She was charged with causing death by dangerous driving, three counts of causing harm by dangerous driving, leaving the scene of the accident and two counts of driving without due care.
Richards was also charged with failing to answer questions about who was driving, refusing to give her name and address and hindering police.