The court heard that Kenneth James Knox of Perth would be wracked with guilt for the rest of his life after his Subaru drifted on to the wrong side of the South Western Highway and hit another car.

Defence lawyer George Papamihail said Knox was devastated but relieved that it was all over.

“The weight is always going to be heavy on his mind – for someone who has lived an exemplary life to have this happen so late in life is a tragedy,” he said.

Manjimup girl Rebekah Williams, 17, and Pemberton girl Rebecca Favero, 16, were killed in a car crash in May last year.

Monique Littlefair, 17, Hannah Dowson, 16 and Nikki Butler, 15 were all seriously injured in the crash.

The girls were travelling to Manjimup after studying at the South West Institute of Technology in Bunbury.

Knox received an 18 month suspended sentence after he pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing the death of the two teenage girls.

Knox told the magistrate that he had no recollection of the tragic incident – in stark contrast to the families of the girls who said the tragedy was burned into their memories.

“I miss her too much to explain – no one should lose a child, if anything the pain only gets worse,” said mother Deborah Favero.

“There is not one day I do not think about it, not one night I do not dream about it and I cry every day,” said Ms Dowson.

Ms Butler said she suffered a lot of guilt for being alive while her friends had died.

In sentencing, Magistrate Vivien Edwards was told that many families had been devastated by the loss of the young girls.

Magistrate Edwards told the court road trauma was a serious problem across the country and it was important to provide a deterrent to stop other drivers driving dangerously.