A MAN who lost his Burnley nephew in a two-car horror smash said today: "It could have been avoided".

Two teenagers, a toddler and a 66-year-old woman all died from their injuries after a Ford Focus collided with a Rover, in Thornton Road, Bradford, last October.

Misadventure verdicts were recorded on all four at an inquest in Bradford but after the hearing Shabir Hussain, the uncle of two year old Shoaib Ghulam, of Burnley, hit out at the ruling.

He said: "We are actually not very happy. We did not get what we expected. I suppose nothing can change the loss we have suffered. I have no bitterness for the people who caused this accident."

"It was something that could have been avoided."

His wife Zohra Sayed survived the crash.

She said in a statement read to the hearing that the tragedy seemed "like a dream," adding: "I seem to have lost a large part of my life."

One child, aged seven, and three adults were cut free from the wreckage of the Rover by firefighters while a passenger in the rear of the Focus was seriously injured but survived.

Inexperienced motorist Carl Jeffrey - who only had a provisional licence - was taking the Focus for a test drive along Thornton Road, Bradford, when he was involved in the horrific smash with the Rover which was travelling in the opposite direction.

The inquest heard how he overtook the car, possibly reaching speeds of up to 65mph in a 40mph zone, and then managed to cut inside a traffic island. But as he tried to get back on the right side of the road, the silver Focus flipped and rolled over the Rover.

Mr Jeffrey was taken to the city's Royal Infirmary after the incident at about 9.30pm on October 26 last year. But he died less than an hour later from a tear to a major blood vessel.

Jordan Rhodes, an 18-year-old student, was a front seat passenger in the Focus in the tragedy. He died later that night from similar injuries.

Toddler Shoaib Ghulam died the following day at Leeds General Infirmary after suffering a fractured skull. He had been travelling in the Rover with 66-year-old housewife Sakina Bi, who died at the scene from a ruptured liver.

The verdicts were recorded on Mr Jeffrey, of Freshfield Gardens, Allerton, Bradford; Mr Rhodes, of Westlands Drive, Allerton, Bradford; Shoaib Ghulam, of Hurtley Street, Burnley, and Sakina Bi, of Whites View, Manningham, Bradford.

Assistant deputy coroner James Turnbull said overtaking a car and avoiding a refuge had been at that speed and "fraught with danger."