This is the horror moment a driver apparently loses control of his car and veers across the central reservation before crashing into oncoming traffic on the other side of the motorway.

The accident involving four cars left a mother, father and their son dead and five others critically injured as the police investigate the cause of the horror crash.

The accident took place on the SP-310 motorway in the Brazilian municipality of Itirapina on the morning of 24th July.

It is not yet known what caused the Ford Fiesta to veer across the central reservation and onto the other side of the road, where it hit two oncoming cars and flung debris into a third.

Maurilio Claros de Freitas Carrega, 50, his partner, Maria Aparecida Lins Tesan, 42, and their son, Guilherme Vinicius Carrega, 13, were travelling in the Ford Fiesta and died at the scene.

The number plates of the Ford Fiesta were registered to the city of Tres Lagoas and the hit cars were travelling towards the city of Sao Paulo.

One of the hit cars, a Chery Tiggo, was carrying five women, all of whom were critically injured and had to be taken to hospital in the nearby city of Sao Carlos.

Five from the same family and a friend and two young men were in the other hit vehicles and emerged unscathed.

The accident caused the closure of the motorway for an hour so the injured victims could be rescued and the bodies of the deceased could be retrieved.

The police are currently investigating the cause of the accident.