A grieving family want 4x4 cars banned after their relative was killed in a collision with a Range Rover on a pedestrian crossing.

Last night they won support from Brighton Pavilion MP David Lepper who said: "These vehicles are designed for rough terrain, not congested city streets."

Wendy Van-Rensburg, 29, was crossing Ditchling Road, Brighton, near the Bat And Ball pub at 8.30pm on Friday.

The project manager was hurled several metres and suffered multiple injuries. Staff at the Royal Sussex County Hospital, Brighton, tried desperately to save her but she died later the same evening.

Last night, her two sisters and partner spoke for the first time and paid tribute to a "loving, vibrant ray of light."

Police were investigating the crash and whether the Range Rover driver had a green or red light as he approached the crossing.

Miss Van-Rensburg's sister Rosemary believed her sister might still be alive had she been hit by a saloon car with a sloping bonnet that might have cushioned the impact.

Rosemary, a 39-year-old photographer with the Metropolitan Police in London, said: "These 4x4s are designed for off-road use including farms.

"Their drivers might be the most careful in the world but I believe people they collide with don't stand as much chance.

"I think these are brutal cars and should not be on our roads. They are status symbols."

Rosemary said she was supporting London mayor Ken Livingstone who wants them banned from the capital.

Mr Lepper sent his sympathies to the family and said he, too, was concerned about 4x4s: "They are designed for use in open countryside as working vehicles and it is a great pity they have become a status symbol to be used in congested urban areas.

"I don't pretend to be an expert and I have never learned to drive but it strikes me that the square and flat front of these vehicles pose more danger to pedestrians.

"And I question whether they are environmentally friendly to use on our city roads."

Rosemary, who lives in London, said she was angered by her sister's death: "She was loving, sociable and vibrant and was loved by everyone she met."

Her son Steven, 21, and sister were close and he would visit his "trendy auntie" with his friends.

Rosemary said: "Her brother Geoff and mother, from Reading, are distraught and devastated. She leaves a massive hole in all our hearts."

Miss Van-Rensburg, born in South Africa, moved to Brighton when she was 18 and for the past 12 years she worked in social care. She lived with her partner Jari James, a 30-year-old musician, in a cottage off Bevendean Road, Brighton.

He said: "Wendy loved working with children and was very passionate about them. We had plans to marry and have a child of our own. She inspired so many people with her inexhaustible happiness and joy and filled many hearts with positivity in and out of her work."

Miss Van-Rensburg recently travelled to India and Asia and hoped to take a social worker degree later this year.

Her sister Tania, 33 and from Newbury, said: "Wendy and I shared many happy moments in Brighton and growing up together. I am lost without my Wendy and my heart is empty. I was so proud of her.

I will miss and love her forever. Wendy had so many friends in Brighton and Brighton will be sad without her."

Witnesses are asked to contact Hove roads police on 0845 6070999, quoting Operation Tightrope.