INQUESTS were opened today into the deaths of the seven people killed in last weekend's horrific head-on car crash in the Cotswolds.

Gloucestershire coroner Alan Crickmore took evidence of the formal identification and medical cause of death of each of the seven - one of whom, Natasha Louise Danielle Didcote, would have celebrated her 16th birthday today.

Her father, convicted drink-driver Jason Paul Brain, 35,of Leamington Lakes Caravan Site, Moreton, is being blamed for causing the tragedy by overtaking dangerously in his Peugeot 306 car and smashing into an oncoming car last Friday night at 9.20pm.

The crash happened on the A429 Moreton in Marsh to Stow road in north Gloucestershire.

Brain and his three passengers - daughter Natasha, of Tinkers Close, Moreton, cousin Ryan Bott, 20, from The Sands, Milton-under-Wychwood, Chipping Norton, and friend Michola Davina Georgina Jones, 31, from Tinkers Close, Moreton, were all killed outright, as was the driver of the oncoming VW Passat, 63-year-old John William Kirby, from Maugersbury Park, Stow.

Mr Kirby's wife, Margaret, 61, died soon afterwards in hospital and the couple's disabled daughter, Julie Ann Kirby, 34, who lived with them, died less than 24 hours after the smash.

The only survivors of the tragedy - Gloucestershire's second worst road accident ever - were Mr and Mrs Kirby's grandchildren, Adam Stone, 10, and his sister Sophie, nine, who were rear passengers in the Passat.

Adam is being treated for head injuries in Bristol's Frenchay Hospital, while his sister is in Bristol's Children's Hospital with abdominal injuries.

Their mother, school dinner lady Tina Stone, 31, from Stow, is the other daughter of Mr and Mrs Kirby. Her children had gone out with their grandparents and aunt that night to a bingo session in Moreton and were on their way home when the crash happened.

Sitting at Cheltenham Magistrates court, the coroner opened inquests into all seven deaths today and adjourned them to dates to be fixed. He said they would all be heard at the same time at a future date.

He was told by coroner's officer Peter Hobday that pathologist Dr Keith McCarthy had carried out post mortems on all seven victims. Six died from multiple injuries and Julie Kirby died from diffuse cerebral eschaemia due to multiple injuries.

Mr Hobday said samples have been taken from all the bodies for toxicological and histological tests.

He told the coroner the details of the collision between the grey Peugeot and the Passat last Friday night.

The body of Jason Brain had been identified, he said, by his sister Melissa Jones; that of Natasha by her mother Lorna Didcote; Michola's body was identified by her mother Carol Jones and Ryan Bott was identified by his mother Valerie Hornsby.

Mr Hobday said Mr Kirby was identified by his brother Frederick Kirby, Mrs Kirby by her brother Graham Hawkes and Julie by her sister Tina Stone, the mother of Adam and Sophie.

The coroner said he was satisfied all seven victims had been properly identified and he adjourned the inquests to allow police investigations into the tragedy to continue.

The collision happened on the same stretch of road where dad of four Brain was found to be twice over the limit after another crash eight years ago. He was given a five-year driving ban.