A relative of two women killed on a Nova Scotia highway this past weekend says he is both broken-hearted and angry.

“Lives don't have to end tragically,” said Chris Westhaver. “I'm not just talking about what happened in the Westhaver family, there's another family, other people that are involved ... and extended families. Debbie Grant, she lost her life in that accident too; preventable... totally, totally preventable.”

Westhaver says he feels lost after losing his family members four days ago, but wants to prevent a similar tragedy from happening again.

On Saturday afternoon, three women died after a multi-vehicle crash on Highway 104 near Dagger Woods, just east of Antigonish. RCMP described it as a “traumatic” and “chaotic” scene.

Two of those women -- 67-year-old Jennifer Westhaver and 36-year-old Katie Westhaver -- were killed. Another woman, 60-year-old Debbie Grant, died in hospital.

Chris Westhaver says the two Cape Breton women were larger than life. Jennifer was caring, welcoming and funny and Katie, a mother of a little girl, survived cancer and inspired Chris to get in shape and lose weight.

The family had already suffered a tragedy, after Jennifer lost a son, Andrew -- Katie's brother -- 29 years ago at the age of 16. Shortly after Andrew's death, Jennifer lost her husband, James, to an illness.

As Christopher Westhaver grieves the loss of his cousin and her daughter, he's also calling on the federal government to extend  its Highway 104 twinning project all the way to Cape Breton.

In July, Ottawa  committed $90 million to twin a 38-kilometre stretch of the 104 from Sutherlands River to Antigonish. That stretch has seen more than 400 accidents in the past decade -- 16 of them fatal.

It's scheduled to be completed by 2024, but the twinning doesn't include the portion of the highway where Saturday's crash happened.

Westhaver says expanding the project is a matter of public safety and says he has contacted the federal and provincial transportation ministers, as well as his local MLA, but his calls haven't been returned.

Meanwhile, the funerals for his cousin Jennifer, and her daughter Katie, will be held in Ingonish Beach this Friday.

Debbie Grant's funeral will be held in Antigonish on Thursday.

With files from CTV Atlantic’s Amanda Debison.