A father has spoken of his anguish at losing his teenage daughter in a car crash that also claimed the life of her best friend.

Cameron McHardy waved 17-year-old Kirsty off in the red Renault Clio he had bought her that day, with no idea that it would be the last time he would see her.

Kirsty was killed with best friend Danielle Mooney, also 17, on March 27, less than 24 hours after getting behind the wheel of her new car. She had passed her driving test just days before.

An inquest at Oxford Coroner's Court yesterday heard that Kirsty attempted to take a right-hand bend, heading towards Wantage on the A338 at Frilford, clipped the nearside grass verge and lost control of the car, spinning into the path of a silver Honda Accord coming the other way.

Both Kirsty and Danielle, who was a front seat passenger, were pronounced dead at the scene.

At the house in Great Mead, off Rewley Road, Oxford, where Mr McHardy lives with partner Michelle, Kirsty's room remains as she left it and her father said he was finding it impossible to say goodbye.

He said: "With most things in life, if something goes wrong, you put it down to experience and move on, but you can't move on from this. It's with you every day. You can't stop your kids having cars - that's just a fact of life.

"But what really struck me in this case is Kirsty had passed her test, we'd bought the car on the Sunday and she was gone within hours of having the car."

Oxfordshire coroner Nicholas Gardiner recorded verdicts of accidental death on both girls.