Rachel Van Oyen: Mother ‘struggling’ after being charged with careless driving causing death of daughters
A Halls Head mother charged over a fatal crash that killed her seven-year-old twin daughters was absent from court for her appearance, with her lawyer revealing she was “struggling”.
Rachel Lisa Van Oyen did not appear in Northam Magistrates Court on Monday after she was charged with two counts of careless driving causing the death of her daughters Macey and Riley in a horror crash near Carrabin in February.
Her council said she was absent as the 31-year-old mother was “struggling in regards to the whole process”.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.Her matter was adjourned so that she could seek legal advice. She is now due to face Northam Magistrates Court on August 5.
Macey and Riley died after the Toyota Camry sedan they were passengers in allegedly veered off Great Eastern Highway and hit a tree on the remote stretch of road, between Merredin and Southern Cross, late in the morning on February 18.
The trio had been travelling back to their home in Halls Head after visiting family members in Kalgoorlie-Boulder.
Ms van Oyen, who was driving the car and escaped the crash without serious injuries, later wrote on social media that everything had changed “in a blink of an eye”.
“My entire world fell apart, vanished,” she said. “There are still no words to describe this emptiness and pain I’m drowning in. It should have been me.
“What I would give to take your places, my precious girls.
“I have never felt so helpless as I did that day — all I could do was try to hold you briefly even though you’d both grown wings.
“I hope you both know how truly sorry I am. All I can do is try to make it through each day now, knowing it’ll never be filled with your beautiful faces.”
Ms van Oyen said her cherished daughters had been her “absolute world” and “nothing makes sense now”.
“Nothing made me more complete being your mother,” she wrote. “You gave me so much purpose, you gave me a strength like no other, you gave me reason to live.
“How can we plan a future without the ones we planned to build one with? How can I be in our house when it’s no longer a home?
“The silence kills me and your absence destroys us in ways we can’t imagine. I’m so lost.”
