A young mother has been left bankrupt in court after pleading guilty to driving without a car following the horror motorway crash that killed her seven-year-old twins.
Rachel Van Oyen, 32, was driving the Toyota Camry that veered off Western Australia’s Great Eastern Highway and struck a tree in the state’s Wheatbelt region, 300 kilometers east of Perth, in February.
She and her young daughters Macey and Riley had traveled back to Perth after visiting relatives in Kalgoorlie.
Van Oyen escaped with only minor injuries, while Macey and Riley died at the scene.
On the stretch of road where the collision occurred, visible skid marks showed that the car had braked heavily as it left the single-lane highway.
Van Oyen was charged with two counts of careless driving causing death, grievous bodily harm or bodily harm.
She pleaded guilty to both charges at Northam Magistrates Court on Monday.
It was the first time Van Oyen appeared in court in person since the charges were filed.
Rachel Van Oyen pictured with her twin daughters Macey and Riley who died after a horror crash on a remote stretch of highway in Perth
The fatal crash occurred on the Great Eastern Highway, with the Toyota Camry hitting a tree 300km east of Perth in WA’s Wheatbelt.
At an earlier hearing, her lawyer Michael Ryan told the court that Van Oyen could not attend due to “significant psychological distress” caused by the crash.
Mr Ryan said it was ‘extremely traumatic’ going through the evidence of the crash with his client and he ‘didn’t want to do that to her again’.
In the days after the crash, Van Oyen posted on Facebook that “nothing makes sense anymore” and that “it should have been me” who died.
“What I would give to take your place, my precious girls,” she wrote.
After the fatal crash, Ms Van Oyen said there were no words to describe ‘this emptiness and pain I am drowning in’
“I have never felt as helpless as that day. All I could do was try to hold you for a moment, even though you had both grown wings.
‘In an instant everything changed. My whole world fell apart, disappeared. There are still no words to describe the emptiness and pain I am drowning in.
‘Nothing makes sense now, you two were my absolute world and nothing made me more complete than being your mother.
“I hope you both know how sorry I am.”
Social media posts from family and friends described the little girls as “magical little twins” and “true sun souls.”
WA Prime Minister Roger Cook previously described the incident as an ‘absolute tragedy’ at the time.
A Gofundme page set up by a family member to ‘help’ Rachel has raised over $53,000.
“Macey and Riley have brought us so much love and joy, and as hard as it is without them, our lives are made better by their short existence,” the page said.
“They were vibrant, sassy and beautiful young girls who had so much life and promise ahead of them.”
Ms Van Oyen will be sentenced in March next year.