How mum reacted in court as she learned she won’t face jail for careless driving that killed her twin seven-year-old daughters Macey and Riley

A mum has broken down in court after learning she will escape jail time over a deadly highway crash that killed her twin daughters.

Rachel Van Oyen, 32, pleaded guilty to two counts of careless driving causing death over the February 2024 crash that claimed the lives of seven-year-olds Macey and Riley.

The Mandurah family were on their way home from visiting relatives in Kalgoorlie when tragedy struck on Western Australia‘s Great Eastern Highway in the Wheatbelt region, 350km east of Perth.

The court heard that Van Oyen momentarily closed her eyes for ‘a second’ when the Toyota Camry veered off the road.

She swerved to avoid a roadside marker, causing it to skid, before the car clipped a tree, flipped and landed on its roof.

Despite wearing seatbelts, Macey and Riley were flung from the car and died at the scene.

Van Oyen received an eight month jail term for the girls’ deaths, which was partly suspended by Magistrate Sarah Oliver when she handed down the sentence earlier this year.

The partly-suspended sentence meant that Van Oyen would spend two months behind bars.

She walked free from jail just two days later after her lawyers launched an appeal over the ‘manifestly excessive’ sentence.

‘Ms Van Oyen challenged the sentence imposed both on the basis that the wrong type of sentence had been imposed, and that the length of the term of imprisonment was manifestly excessive,’ court documents stated.

Van Oyen wept in the dock as her original sentence was overturned by the Supreme Court of WA on Tuesday, The West Australian reported.

She was re-sentenced to eight months, fully suspended.

Outside court, Van Oyen said that she wanted to be left alone.

‘I just want to grieve my girls,’ she told reporters.

In the days following the crash, Van Oyen posted on Facebook that ‘nothing makes sense now’ and that it ‘should have been me’ who died.

‘What I would give to take your places, my precious girls,’ she wrote.

‘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.

‘In a blink of an eye everything changed. My entire world fell apart, vanished. There are still no words to describe this emptiness and pain I’m 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 truly sorry I am.’

A mum has broken down in court after learning she will escape jail time over a deadly highway crash that killed her twin daughters.

Rachel Van Oyen, 32, pleaded guilty to two counts of careless driving causing death over the February 2024 crash that claimed the lives of seven-year-olds Macey and Riley.

The Mandurah family were on their way home from visiting relatives in Kalgoorlie when tragedy struck on Western Australia‘s Great Eastern Highway in the Wheatbelt region, 350km east of Perth.

The court heard that Van Oyen momentarily closed her eyes for ‘a second’ when the Toyota Camry veered off the road.

She swerved to avoid a roadside marker, causing it to skid, before the car clipped a tree, flipped and landed on its roof.

Despite wearing seatbelts, Macey and Riley were flung from the car and died at the scene.

Van Oyen received an eight month jail term for the girls’ deaths, which was partly suspended by Magistrate Sarah Oliver when she handed down the sentence earlier this year.

The partly-suspended sentence meant that Van Oyen would spend two months behind bars.

She walked free from jail just two days later after her lawyers launched an appeal over the ‘manifestly excessive’ sentence.

‘Ms Van Oyen challenged the sentence imposed both on the basis that the wrong type of sentence had been imposed, and that the length of the term of imprisonment was manifestly excessive,’ court documents stated.

Van Oyen wept in the dock as her original sentence was overturned by the Supreme Court of WA on Tuesday, The West Australian reported.

She was re-sentenced to eight months, fully suspended.

Outside court, Van Oyen said that she wanted to be left alone.

‘I just want to grieve my girls,’ she told reporters.

In the days following the crash, Van Oyen posted on Facebook that ‘nothing makes sense now’ and that it ‘should have been me’ who died.

‘What I would give to take your places, my precious girls,’ she wrote.

‘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.

‘In a blink of an eye everything changed. My entire world fell apart, vanished. There are still no words to describe this emptiness and pain I’m 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 truly sorry I am.’