A 22-year-old medical student was killed in a horror crash when a pickup truck driver fell asleep at the wheel and smashed into her car head-on.

Tragic Catarina Mercadante Leite died instantly in the high-speed highway crash in Echapora, Brazil, on 29th January.

Police said 20-year-old pickup truck driver Luis Paulo Machado de Almeida dozed off and drifted across the road into oncoming traffic.

Both cars were shunted onto the side of the road by the force of the collision.

Shocking pictures of the medic’s car show how it was hit so hard the engine bay was pushed into the passenger compartment.

De Almeida and his passenger were taken to hospital in Marilia, where he tested negative for alcohol consumption.

He told police he had simply been tired from a nearly-five-hour non-stop drive from Guara.

But another road user told police that De Almeida had been speeding at the time, as well as overtaking other cars on a stretch where overtaking is forbidden.

Both vehicles have been seized and Civil Police are investigating the case as manslaughter.

Catarina was about to start her fourth year of medicine at the University of Marilia (Unimar).

The university said in a statement: “The Unimar family extends its deepest condolences to Catarina’s parents and family, as well as to her colleagues, teachers and closest collaborators.”

Catarina lived in Assis, where she was buried on 30th January.