"Everyone liked him. It is always the nice ones that go."

Those were the words through the tears Valerie Hornsby was clinging to as she and Richard Bott tried to make sense of the death of their son Ryan in a head-on crash in Gloucestershire that claimed seven lives on Friday night.

Mr Bott, a 20-year-old window cleaner, died instantly when a car driven by his step-cousin Jason Brain crashed head-on into an oncoming car while overtaking on the A429 Fosse Way between Moreton-in-Marsh and Stow-on- the-Wold.

All four occupants of Mr Brain's Peugeot died at the scene, as did the driver of the car it hit, grandfather John Kirby, 53. His wife Margaret, 61, and their daughter Julie, 34, died later in hospital.

The couple's grandchildren Adam and Sophie Stone, 10 and nine respectively, were last night fighting for their lives in hospital.

Mr Bott's parents paid tribute to their son - a keen footballer who went to school in Enstone and Chipping Norton - as a popular young man, while shocked friends called at the family's home in Milton-under-Wychwood to pass on their condolences on Saturday.

Ms Hornsby said: "We have had a lot of his friends knock on the door and tell us they miss him. They thought the world of him."

She added: "He was a very caring young man. He had many friends and he enjoyed socialising. It's not right that this has happened. Everyone liked him. It's always the nice ones that go."

Yesterday it emerged Mr Brain, 35, had previously been involved in a similar crash on the same road in 2000 and had convictions for drink-driving, careless driving and failing to stop after an accident.

Mr Bott's parents did not want to comment about Mr Brain but said their son had left his van in Chipping Norton so he could go out with his step-cousin. Ms Hornsby said: "He got on really well with Jason. Since they met at my mother's funeral they got together and starting going out drinking and socialising."

She added: "He made lots of friends. He was a very sociable young man. He cared for people. He cared for the old people on his window-cleaning round. He was always going round and having a chat with them.

"He was telling me how one old lady fell over off her frame and he made sure she was okay, and sat with her and made her a cup of tea while they waited for someone to arrive."

His father said: "He was so well liked and he made friends wherever he went. He loved football and supported Manchester United. He played for Enstone and Middle Barton and could play anywhere on the pitch.

He added: "He was a window cleaner, but he used to do dry-stone walling with me. His mate has got a window-cleaning round in Banbury and he had been doing quite well. He was trying to find somewhere in Banbury to live."

Mr Bott, a former pupil of Enstone Primary School and Chipping Norton School, had two sisters, Vicky, 18, and Laura, 33, and two brothers Clint, 31, and Ben, 26. Enstone Football Club cancelled its games on Saturday as a mark of respect.

The two women who died in Brain's car have been named locally as Natasha Didcote, 15, and Michola Jones, 31.