But for her family left behind, her memory still vividly remains.

On Wednesday, the Niblett family will mark the one-year anniversary of Mandy's death with part of the front garden of their Albert Street home dedicated in Mandy's honour.

But as much as time passes, the anger of how Mandy died has failed to subside.

If she was still alive today, Mandy would be 18, closer to a dream of opening up her own hair salon, and looking after her daughter Mia Rose, who turns three next month.

But Mandy's life, along with six other lives, was cut tragically short on that sunny September day last year. And as a coronial inquest later revealed, drugs had played a large part.

Mandy was sitting in the rear driver's side seat of a Ford sedan driven by Max Purdue, also of Horsham.

Mandy had been in a relationship with Mr Purdue's son, Mick, who is Mia Rose's father. Neither Mick nor Mia Rose were involved in the accident.

A coronial inquest last month found Max had been driving while high on cannabis.

Max failed to give way at an intersection on the Borung Highway and crashed into a Ford Transit van, occupied by Heywood's Graham and Kathleen Millard. Both vehicles were immediately engulfed in flames.

Others to die in the accident included Daniel Kelly of Balranald and his children Gavin and Natalie Jackson-Kelly.

During the coronial inquest, Dr Morris O'Dell said tests had shown Mr Purdue had been using cannabis less than an hour before the crash, and the cannabis level in his system would have stopped his brain from understanding what his eyes were seeing.

What Debbie Niblett still can't understand is why her daughter got into the car that day, a decision that cost Mandy her life.

Mrs Niblett said she hadn't seen Mandy in the four weeks leading up to the crash, only speaking to her via mobile phone and text messaging.

"I never thought my kids would have to go through something like this, but I was wrong," she said.

"Mandy was always against drugs, and smoking, but she would have done anything for Mia Rose.

"And I honestly believe she was living in fear and was in the car because of Mia Rose.

"Did Max know how much drugs he had in his system, probably not, half the people on drugs don't know what they are taking or what they are doing.

"I just hope from this, that a lot of people think of what they're actually doing, and what damage it is doing to them.

"There are innocent lives that have been lost here.

"In a way I know it took seven lives, but we were very lucky it didn't take a V-Line bus or something like that.

"And if it didn't happen then, it would have happened at some stage.

"You can take a chance too many times, but you are always going to get caught. But some people just don't realise what they're doing."

Mrs Niblett said she had also been hurt by what had been said about the nature of the relationship between Mandy and Mick after the accident.

She said there had been many lies told, leaving the family devastated.

"There are a lot of people out there who still don't know the whole truth. All the people who we thought were Mandy's friends, few have stuck by her."

Mrs Niblett has spent part of the past year fighting for custody of Mia Rose. She now shares custody with Mick as she tries to rebuild the two-year-old's life without her mother.

"Mia is the real innocent party in this, and now she is without a mother," she said.

Mrs Niblett said living in a small town, and the accompanying constant reminders, had made it hard on her family, culminating in one son attempting suicide in the past year.

But she said she wouldn't move anywhere else because she could not leave Mandy.

"I go to the cemetery four or maybe five times a day," Mrs Niblett said fighting back tears.

"When I'm there I see graves where people haven't visited for years, how could people just leave it like that?

"And we've done the garden because the kids don't always like going up to the cemetery. So this is a permanent reminder for them.

"I've now got seven kids and a grand-daughter, and I've got to do all I can to make sure they don't go through what Mandy went through."