A young mother broke down in court as she pleaded guilty to driving without a car over the horror road accident that killed her seven-year-old twins.
Rachel Van Oyen, 32, was driving the Toyota Camry that left Western Australia’s Great Eastern Highway and crashed into 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 minor injuries, while Macey and Riley died at the scene.
On the stretch of road where the accident occurred, visible tire skid marks showed that the car had braked sharply while veering off the single-lane road.
Van Oyen was charged with two counts of reckless driving causing death, serious bodily injury or bodily harm.
He 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 horrific crash on a remote stretch of highway in Perth.
The fatal accident occurred on the Great Eastern Highway when the Toyota Camry collided with a tree 300 kilometers east of Perth, in WA’s Wheatbelt.
At an earlier hearing, his lawyer Michael Ryan told the court that “significant psychological problems” caused by the accident had prevented Van Oyen from attending.
Ryan said it was “extremely traumatic” to discuss evidence from the accident with his client and that he “didn’t want to do that to him again.”
In the days after the accident, Van Oyen posted on Facebook that “nothing makes sense anymore” and that “it should have been me” who died.
“What I wouldn’t give to take your places, my beautiful girls,” he wrote.
After the fatal accident, Van Oyen said there were no words to “describe this emptiness and pain in which I am drowning.”
“I have never felt as helpless as that day. All I could do was try to hug you briefly even though you both had grown wings.
‘In the blink of an eye everything changed. My whole world fell apart, disappeared. There are still no words to describe this emptiness and pain in which I am drowning.
‘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 girls as “magical twins” and “true bright souls.”
WA Premier Roger Cook previously described the incident at the time as an “absolute tragedy”.
TO gofundme page created by a family member to “help Rachel” has raised more than $53,000.
“Macey and Riley brought us so much love and joy, and as difficult as it is without them, our lives are improved by their short existence,” the page states.
“They were vibrant, bold, beautiful young girls who had a lot of life and promise ahead of them.”
Ms Van Oyen will be sentenced in March next year.