'Find car crash killers' says son

Mr and Mrs Whyne were killed in a car crash

Two car thieves who killed a couple in a hit-and-run crash on New Year's Eve must be brought to justice, grieving relatives have said.

Ken Whyne told how his parents Keith, 71, and Pearl, 59, were "wiped out" by a speeding car at 1500 GMT on Friday.

Mr Whyne had been driving his wife, a nurse, to Birmingham's City Hospital, where she had worked for 29 years.

"It is unbelievable and the chilling thing is, this can happen to anybody at any time," said Ken Whyne.

The couple had nine children, 15 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren and had spent Christmas with the family at their home in Bordesley Green, Birmingham.

People just need to take responsibility for what they do and for their actions Ken Whyne

They were turning right from Icknield Street dual carriageway into Pitsford Street when the Mercedes CLK hit the side of their car, which was shunted 30m (98ft) by the force of the crash.

Two men ran off after taking something out of the stolen car's boot.

Ken Whyne, 43, who was accompanied by his sister Rachel and brother Tony, both 28, said: "We are here to talk about wasted lives. Our parents had a combination of 70 years of service for the Post Office and the NHS.

"Our parents served this community and brought up nine children - all of us law-abiding and clean-living.

"The whole thing has been wiped out in a matter of seconds by people who are so callous, with such scant disregard for life, that they walked away from an incident like this.

Ken Whyne appealed for help to find his parents' killers

"People just need to take responsibility for what they do and for their actions."

Appealing for information from the public, he added: "We believe somebody out there knows who did this, who is responsible.

"This could have been anybody. It was New Year's Eve, it could have been any one of your families out there."

Mr Whyne, a former Royal Mail security guard, was pronounced dead at the scene. His wife was taken to City Hospital, but her colleagues were unable to save her.

Police are carrying out forensic tests on the car and are looking for two men, in their twenties, described as black or Asian, one of whom had a goatee beard.

They were picked up in another car after running off and escaped along Pitsford Street towards City Hospital, but may have been injured in the crash.

Appealing for information, Sergeant Paul Bennett, of West Midlands Police, said: "Maybe a relative or a friend will have noticed somebody carrying a new injury, possibly whiplash."