A YEAR after his whole family was killed in a car crash, Dean Cockburn has spoken of his loss.

Five members of the family, from Ouston, near Chester-le-Street, County Durham, died when their car was involved in a head-on collision with a lorry on the A18 near Grimsby.

Angela and David Cockburn, 48 and 49, their daughters Carley Ann, 21, and Bethany, 18, and Bethany’s two-year-old daughter Lacie Jade Stephenson were travelling back from a dance competition at Butlins in Skegness.

Mr Cockburn, 25, the only surviving member of his immediate family, who works as a maintenance technician at Nissan, near Sunderland, said: “Not a day goes by when you don’t think about them.

“You battle with who you are grieving for and you don’t know.

“You say to yourself: how can you only think about one of them. It is too much to only think about one person.

“It is only when you are getting back to normal that you realise they are not here.”

The Nissan Primera the family were travelling in and a lorry collided near Laceby on the A18 on Friday, April 12.

Inquests into their deaths have been opened and adjourned until police accident investigators have established the cause of the tragedy.

Mr Cockburn said: “This has left a massive hole in our lives and every day is a struggle, but the support we have had from outside has been amazing.

“Thank you to everyone for their support. It has been overwhelming.”