Cynthia Dougherty and Maria Dalsass were both killed Saturday in a seven-vehicle collision on Highway 50 in Brampton. The two friends, both in their 40s, were travelling in the same Pontiac Grand AM when an Audi and a BMW police allege may have been street racing, spun out and sent debris flying across a 100-metre stretch of highway.

Just beyond that stretch, Cynthia's husband Derrick watched helplessly.

"I was about 10 car lengths in front of them," Derrick Dougherty recalled. "I heard it, and then I looked in my side mirrors and I saw it."

What he saw was a mangled wreck containing the lifeless bodies of his wife and her friend.

"I looked at them both, there was no facial trauma that I could see it just looked like they were sleeping, unconscious ... I didn't feel that they were passed," he said.

Two brothers, both in their 20s, Brian and Steve Machado, were driving the reportedly speeding Audi and BMW, and both were arrested at the scene. Witnesses suggest the Audi went on to a gravel shoulder to pass a truck and it was when it pulled back on the road that the vehicle spun out and sparked the collisions.

The Machado brothers both face charges of criminal negligence causing death and street racing charges are being considered.

"The hurt is now turning to anger," Derrick Dougherty said. "I didn't need to lose my wife on Saturday."

Cindy Dougherty will be laid to rest on Wednesday.