A heartbroken mother whose 29-year-old son was killed after being hit by a car faces an 18-month wait until an inquest is held into his death.

Jane Cherrill, 54, from Marston Road, Oxford, says the family are "stuck in time" while they wait to find out what happened in the accident which killed Anthony Oliver.

Father-of-one Mr Oliver, a painter and decorator from Marston Road, was hit by a car in Headington's London Road at 1am on June 4.

After receiving a call to say he had been hurt, the family rushed to Mr Oliver's bedside at Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital - but he died before they had all arrived.

Mrs Cherrill said: "I'm heartbroken. I feel that the day Anthony died, I died inside. I will take this to my grave.

"Some of us got to the hospital too late. I keep thinking about him lying on that bed.

"I'm not the same person I used to be. It makes me bitter and quite angry."

Although the family know Mr Oliver, a former Cheney School pupil and Marston Saints footballer, was struck by a car driven by an off-duty taxi-driver, they do not know exactly what happened.

Sister Lisa Oliver, 35, of Mortimer Road, Rose Hill, said: "We have to wait between 12 and 18 months. It makes me absolutely disgusted and angry.

"We need some closure. We are just stuck in time and everyone else is getting on with their life.

"When I last saw him he was in that hospital bed. I can't get that out of my head. I got to the hospital two minutes too late.

"That last picture of him haunts me, I see it when I get up and when I go to bed.

"It's like a living night- mare."

Brother Mark Oliver, 33, from Coverley Road, Headington, was with Mr Oliver until 10.30pm on the night he died, watching England play Jamaica in the Chequers pub.

He said: "Basically we just want some answers."

Mr Oliver's fiance Jo Nicolson, 32, from Lambton Close, Cowley, said her three-year-old daughter Lauren was finding it hard to come to terms with her father's death.

She said: "Anthony was very popular, the church was packed out with people standing at his funeral. He was very sociable. He was a brilliant dad.

"Lauren's very angry, she's trying to hit out. She was a daddy's girl. I need to explain to her - I can't just say we don't know."

A spokesman for Oxford Coroner's Court said the delay could be because extra time was needed to compile reports and gather evidence.

She said: "It does seem quite a long time but it varies between individual cases. It depends on who needs to provide reports, and how complicated it is."

* A man has been charged with careless driving and offences relating to his car at the time of the accident - although experts found that these defects did not contribute to the accident or to Mr Anthony's death.

Other delays

* The Oxford family of 22-year-old student Angela Regoczy waited four years for an inquest into her death. She was killed when a tree fell on the car she was in during heavy storms in 2002, but the inquest only took place earlier this month. The coroner recorded a verdict of death by misadventure.

* It was two years before there was an inquest into the death of 20-year-old student Emilie Harris, killed after she was hit by a bus in 2004. An inquest in March ruled accidental death but bus driver Paul Willis, 48, of Long Hanborough, was convicted of careless driving this month.

* Many military families are awaiting inquests into the deaths of their loved ones in Iraq and Afghanistan because of delays at Oxford Coroner's Court. The workload of Oxfordshire coroner Nicholas Gardiner has risen sharply because bodies flown into RAF Brize Norton are his responsibility.