An inquest date has finally been set almost a year after eight people died in an A23 horror crash.

The mother of two people who died in the smash said: "We may at last get some closure - it is going to be a very emotional day."

Families of the victims are hoping the April 13 hearing will explain what caused a BMW to swerve and fly over a central reservation at Pyecombe last May.

The car ploughed into an on-coming Land Rover Freelander killing a man and wife and a two-year-old boy.

All five people in the BMW died.

The crash was the worst in living memory in Sussex.

The inquest has taken an unusually long time but Sussex Police said the investigation was complex and thorough.

Superintendent Nick Wilkinson, head of the force road policing unit, said: "This was one of the most exhaustive investigations ever undertaken. Eight people died and we owed it to them and their families to leave no stone unturned."

Those killed in the BMW were Aaron Sharpe, 20, and his sister Katherine, 18, of Gossops Drive, Crawley; Gemma Smoker, 17, of Henshaw Close, Bewbush; Danielle Billingham, 17, who had just moved to Crawley; and Mitch Treliving, 19, from Faygate, near Horsham.

Those who died in the Freelander were: Kate Beasley, 30, her husband Toby, 33, and two-year-old Marcus Mohabir, all from Godalming in Surrey.

Marcus' father Steve, 36, was trapped but managed to reach out to hold his dying son's hand as rescue teams battled to free them. He suffered a broken leg, smashed elbow and internal injuries.

Mr Mohabir, who had taken Marcus with his best friends to Brighton seafront for the day, is recovering at home with his new baby son Max and his wife Tracey, 39.

The inquest will be held a day before what would have been Katherine Sharpe's 19th birthday.

Gloria Marshall, Katherine and Aaron's mother, said she understood fixing a date that would have avoided anniversaries when so many were involved was difficult.

She said: "It will be very emotional to think we will finally come to some form of closure but I am concerned we may never know all of what we want.

"That is not to say the police have not done their best. I'm sure they have."

Mrs Marshall hopes to get an answer to why the car took off and flew over the central reservation barrier.

She said: "Maybe there was some fault with the barrier at that particular section."

She said had the barrier stopped the BMW "there would still have been an accident but maybe not to the same extent and the Freelander would not have been involved.

"I admit there are a lot of ifs and buts."

The inquest, expected to last all day, will be held at Worthing County Court in Christchurch Road, Worthing.