Three lifelong friends were killed after a drunk driver went the wrong way down the M6 and ploughed into their car, in what a coroner described as “road traffic murder”.

Romanian-born Vasile Calin, aged 27, Vasile Florin Bura, 27, and Florin Paska, 18, were killed instantly in the head-on smash last May near Great Barr.  The 27-year-old lone driver, Zimbabwean student Tauya Marengereke, also died.

He had been to a party the night before and was twice the drink-drive limit, tests showed.

Black Country Coroner Robin Balmain said it was the worst road accident he had dealt with in 35 years.

He recorded a verdict of unlawful killing on the three friends, and ruled that Marengereke died as a result of a road accident.

The inquest at Smethwick Council House heard that Marengereke, an engineering student in Brighton, had drunk beer and spirits at a party in Manchester before setting off to drive home at about 3am on May 24 in a hired Ford Fusion.

CCTV footage showed him sitting in his car for half an hour on the hard shoulder near Great Barr, before U-turning and driving northwards at around 5.30am.

He collided head-on with a Peugeot 406 containing four Romanians who were driving back from a friend’s house in a Peugeot 406.   Vasile Paska, Florin’s elder brother, survived.

PC Steve Jubb, a collision investigator for West Midlands Police, said that debris from the smash, which happened at 5.50am, had scattered 280ft. Both cars had been travelling at around 70mph.

He said: “It is most probable that the level of alcohol in Mr Marengereke’s blood played a significant part in this collision.”

Mr Balmain said he had taken the unusual step of releasing a photograph of the friends’  smashed Peugeot 406 as a warning against drink driving.

“As far as I am concerned, death by a road traffic collision doesn’t do this justice, this was akin to road traffic murder.”