Metro

A beautiful life lost on LI road

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A brilliant college-bound Long Island teenager was killed by a drunken driver late Sunday night — just days after graduating from high school with honors.

Brittney Walsh, 18, of Copiague, was praised by her father as an all-star student who had big dreams.

“She would have been something,” the heartbroken dad, Tom Walsh, said yesterday as he fought back tears.

“She would have been hot s–t wherever she went.”

Even though she grew up in the working-class neighborhood, the proud father said his daughter was destined to land a high-powered job on Wall Street.

“Any parent would want a girl like her,” he said. “She did it all on her own.”

Brittney Walsh was driving home after a work at a local Kmart when Michael Grasing, 31, of Babylon, slammed into her vehicle from behind and sent it flying into a utility pole, cops said.

She had just graduated from Walter G. O’Connell HS in Copiague on Friday.

The York College-bound teen — whose mangled SUV still had a “Congrats Grad” sticker on its door — was declared dead at the scene.

Grasing, a married father of a young boy, suffered moderate injuries and was charged with DWI.

Walsh blasted the other driver, saying that his choice to drink and drive has devastated his once-happy family.

“He made a big mistake,” Walsh fumed. “Everybody has a couple of drinks here and there, but you have to understand you’re not supposed to drive.

“I wish it was different. I don’t know what to say. He made a stupid choice, and that choice I have to pay for now. I’m a firm believer in consequence, so I think he’s going to pay, too.”

School officials said Walsh was one of the highest-achieving students in her class.

“She was involved in varsity club, varsity soccer, winter and spring track, National Honor Society, student council, chorus, ecology club, and also helped build sets for the school play,” a district statement said.

Grasing, who has no prior criminal record, is expected to be arraigned on the DWI charges today once he is discharged from Good Samaritan Medical Center in West Islip.

Charges against him could be elevated by prosecutors pending their investigation and toxicology results. He smelled of alcohol and showed signs of intoxication, sources said.

Grasing’s dazed and teary father told The Post that his son is a devoted and doting father.

“He’s a good kid,” said Michael Grasing Sr. “I’m just devastated. My heart goes out to the family of that girl. What is there to say in a situation like this?”