INDIANAPOLIS -- The family of a hard-working college student and single mother whose life was cut short in a fatal crash that police said involved a drunken driver said the crash was senseless and completely avoidable.

Shortly after 10 p.m. Monday, Phyllis and Ransom Dodson got news that no parent ever wants to hear after their daughter, Eboni Dodson, 30, was killed.

"Never in a million years did I think she was hit by a drunk driver, and they take my child," Phyllis Dodson said. "My child is gone."

Indiana State Police said Eboni Dodson was eastbound on Interstate 465 near the Keystone Avenue exit helping friends move a disabled car off the road.

While Dodson steered, her friends pushed. Seconds later, a car driven by Curt Carlson, 45, of Indianapolis, hit the vehicle.

Dodson's friends jumped out of the way, but she was trapped in the car.

Ransom said Eboni was a wonderful daughter and an even better mother to her 4-year-old son, Bishop, who they will now raise.

"Now, there's another page or chapter we have to start, which we didn't have to start if he hadn't hit her," he said.

The Dodsons said they're not angry at Carlson, who was arrested following the accident, but they have a message for anyone thinking about drinking and driving.

"There should be some kind of thing that we can get out where they would get the message and just don't do it," Dodson said.

Carlson was arrested on charges of operating a vehicle while intoxicated, causing death and public intoxication.