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.

"You've got this thing that you will learn by your mistakes but when it's cars involved, you can make one mistake and that's the end of it. You don't get another chance. And if you've got no real experience, you're running quite a high risk."

Brought up in Uffington, Kirsty moved to Oxford aged 14, when her father and mother, Maria Hull, divorced. She sat her GCSEs at King Alfred's School in Wantage and went on to Abingdon and Witney College, where she was taking a national diploma in journalism. She had recently completed work experience with More! magazine and had been offered places to study journalism at Cardiff and Bournemouth universities.

Mr McHardy described her as "massively independent" and a "party animal".

He said: "The car was just another independence thing - she just had to have it. I brought her up to believe that if you wanted to do something or experience something in life, you can do it."

Her friend, Danielle, of Old School Lane, East Challow, had been studying for an NVQ in beauty therapy at the same college as Kirsty. The pair had been best friends for years.

Speaking after the inquest, her grandmother, Celia Cook, 63, who lived with Danielle, her parents Debbie and David and Danielle's older sister Donna, 19, described her granddaughter as a "free spirit".

She said: "She was the life and soul of the place. As soon as she came in the back door from college, there was no more quiet in the place.

"Kirsty was her best friend and spent most of her time with us. Where one was, the other was never far away."

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

* Several people arrested in connection with a crash in which a man died on an Oxfordshire road have been released on police bail.

A 17-year-old youth, who has not yet been named, died after the two car smash at about 11pm on Sunday.

He was a passenger in a red Ford Sierra which was in collision with a white Ford Escort in Abingdon Road, Drayton.

Two men, aged 18 and 25, and a 15-year-old were arrested and later released on police bail until January 4.

Call Sgt Bryan Smith on 08458 505505 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.

Death toll passes 2005 total

The death toll on Oxfordshire's roads this year has now reached a total of 50 - 10 more than the total for the whole of last year.

Thames Valley Police and county council road safety officials appealed last monthto drivers to reduce their speed and ensure they were driving safely. Drivers were advised switch off mobile phones before getting behind the wheel and wear their seatbelts.

Sgt Paul Thornton, a road safety officer based in Bicester, said the road layout and driver fatigue could contribute to fatalities and serious injuries.

The number of fatal and serious road accidents has dropped by nearly a quarter since 1996.

Road safety officials hope the figures will not top the death total for 2003 - 64. The highest number of road deaths in Oxfordshire since local government boundary changes in 1974 was in 1978 when 99 people died.