A convicted drunk driver, who is being blamed for seven deaths including his own in a head-on collision, was reported to police just days before the accident.

Jason Brain, 35, apparently pulled out to overtake another vehicle on the A429 in Gloucestershire at 9.20pm on Friday and collided with a couple travelling in the opposite direction.

Mr Brain, his daughter Natasha Didcote, 15, and two other passengers in his Peugeot 306 were killed instantly. John Kirby, 63, a lorry driver, and his wife, Maggie, 61, also died at the scene.

Their disabled daughter Julie, 34, died in hospital on Saturday night.

The only survivors are their grandchildren Adam, 10, and Sophie Stone, 9. They were still in a critical condition last night in hospitals in Bristol.

Details emerged yesterday about Mr Brain’s history of motoring offences. In 2001, he was convicted of drink-driving after an almost identical accident on the same stretch of road between Stow-on-the-Wold and Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire.

He had been driving a Ford Gran-ada when he tried to overtake a lorry and hit a Volkswagen coming in the opposite direction. Although on that occasion no one was killed, Mr Brain was banned for five years after being convicted of drink-driving and fleeing the scene of an accident.

Earlier last week residents of More-ton complained to the police that Mr Brain was doing “wheelies” in the high street on his motorcycle with a nine-year-old girl on the pillion seat. Neither of them had a helmet on.

The girl was the daughter of Nichola Jones, 31, who died in the accident on Friday. Friends said that Mr Brain had recently been reconciled with his own daughter, Natasha, and she had been living with him in a caravan.

Neighbours said that Mr Brain had been driving recklessly earlier on the night of the crash. A shop assistant said: “He’d been racing up and down the street. He loved to drive fast.”

More than 40 floral tributes have been left at the spot where the accident happened on a road known as the Fosse Way.

More details also emerged about the Kirbys. Mrs Kirby, a housekeeper at the Grapevine Hotel in Stow-on-the-Wold, was an active member of the local Royal British Legion. Her husband was due to retire soon from his job at a local haulage firm.

They were returning from a bingo session and had no chance to avoid Mr Brain as he apparently overtook a Kia car and hit their VW Passat.

Sergeant Kevin Roseblade, of Gloucestershire Police, said: “It is a Roman road and, as such, is very straight and subject to a 60mph limit.

“I wouldn’t say it is any worse or dangerous than any other road but if both vehicles are travelling at 60mph you have a combined impact speed of 120mph, which is what we think happened here.”

Mr Brain’s passengers also included Ryan Bolt, 20, who had left his own car behind because he did not want to drink and drive.

Lucille Clayton-Ives, an aunt of Natasha Didcote and a cousin of Nichola Jones, said: “He was never legal on the road, he didn’t bother to get insurance or MoTs and I don’t think he even had a licence.”

Her husband, Bill, added: “He was the kind of bloke who was asking to get killed every time he went out on the road. It’s just a tragedy he had to take six other people with him.

“What he did is tantamount to murder and that’s how he should be remembered.”

Not everyone criticised Mr Brain. Muriel Swift, 32, who was laying flowers at the scene of the crash, said: “I am not going to defend him.

“But how many of us can say we haven’t made a bad decision while driving? Jason may have been a lot of things, but he would never have wanted to cause anyone’s death, least of all his own.”
Police are appealing for more witnesses to the crash to come forward.

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