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

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

Mr Bott, a 20-year-old window cleaner, was killed instantly when the car driven by his step-cousin Jason Brain crashed head-on with another on the winding Fosse Way, the A429, between Moreton-in-Marsh and Stow-on-the-Wold.

All four occupants of Mr Brain's Peugoet died at the scene, as did the driver of the other car, grandfather John Kirby.

Mr Kirby's wife Margaret, 61, and their daughter Julie, died later in hospital. The couple's grandchildren Adam and Sophie Stone, ten, 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.

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.

"Four came to the door and we have lots of phonecalls. They are all just devastated by it all.

"He was a very caring young man. He had many friends and he enjoyed socialising.

"It is not right that this has happened. Everyone liked him. It is always the nice ones that go."

Yesterday it emerged Mr Brain, 35, had been involved in a similar crash in 2000 and was convicted of 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 OK and sat with her and made her a cup of tea while they waited for someone to arrive.

"He said to me, 'If I can just help somebody every day I would be happy'. That is the sort of lad he was."

Mr Bott added: "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 just enjoyed playing.

"We moved here from Enstone three years ago and he made friends immediately.

"He went to the Bell Inn at Chipping Norton and left his van there and met up with Jason, the driver, who was his step cousin.

"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.

His club, Enstone, cancelled its games on Saturday in the Oxfordshire Senior League as a mark of respect.

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