Two lifelong friends who dedicated their lives to helping others died when their car smashed into another and burst into flames, an inquest heard.

Trainee nurse Paddington Nyandoro, 36, and father-of-two Ernest Machapu, 38 - who was driving while over the legal alcohol limit - were returning to their homes in Burgess Hill after seeing a concert in Brighton.

Their Ford Escort careered across the A273 at Clayton Hill, smashed into an oncoming taxi and burst into flames. The taxi driver escaped with minor injuries.

Donald Acton, a Royal Navy warrant officer, told an inquest he drove past the crash just after it happened on March 22.

He said: "I saw the driver of the Mondeo in his car, still moving.

"He was silhouetted by the flames from the bonnet of the Escort. I spoke to the taxi driver and he was only concerned about the driver in the other car.

"But the whole of the interior of the Escort was full of smoke and there was a fierce fire.

"The heat was too much. There was nothing more I could do until the fire brigade and ambulance came."

Mr Nyandoro's sisters Unity and Netsai Nyandoro, and Mr Machapu's sister Spiwe wept as they heard the evidence.

Spiwe Machupu asked Mr Acton if he had heard any screaming but he said he had heard nothing.

Coroner's officer Barry Markham told the inquest he believed the men were unconscious.

Taxi driver David Johnson, of Linton Road, Hove, was travelling up Clayton Hill when he saw the Escort come round the bend.

He said: "The car was coming full on at me from the other side of the road. I saw the car first, not the lights. It was coming at me broadside.

"It was seconds between seeing the car and it hitting me."

He said he hit his brakes out of instinct but there was nothing he could do to prevent the crash.

Pathologist Gemma Stockford found 133mg of alcohol per 100 ml of blood in Mr Machapu's body, around one and a half times the legal limit.

West Sussex Coroner Roger Stone recorded verdicts of accidental death.

The men, both support workers at The Dene Hospital, a secure mental health unit for women in Burgess Hill, grew up two doors from each other in their native Zimbabwe.

Single Mr Nyandoro, who lived with his sister at Fairlea Close, Burgess Hill, was on a nursing studies course at South Bank University in London.

Mr Machupu, who lived with his cousin Robert Nayeza at The Martletts, Burgess Hill, was saving money to send back to his wife and two children in Harare.