WHEN Angela and Maryanne Vourlis woke up yesterday, their 20th birthday, they logged on to Facebook expecting to read well wishes and greetings from friends.

Horrifically, the twins were confronted with the devastating news their brother Bobby, 17, had been killed in a triple-fatal accident.

He and two friends died when the car they were in crashed in heavy rain in Sydney's west early yesterday.

"I didn't get it. All these people were writing, 'RIP Chris Naylor' and 'RIP Bobby', and I thought: 'What's going on?'," Angela said.

Desperate for reassurance there was a mistake, she tried over and over to ring her brother.

"I kept ringing and messaging but couldn't get on to him. So I rang Mum and said: 'Chris Naylor must have died - I just read it on Facebook. But where's Bobby? People are writing 'RIP Bobby' too.'

"Mum said 'Bobby was with Chris Naylor last night'."

Online social networking had delivered the mother and daughter the worst possible news.

Heartbreakingly, a police delay in notifying the family meant Mrs Vourlis had to ring St Marys police to ask about her son's death - almost six hours after he had been killed.

Bobby's uncle Peter Matelis said it beggared belief that police had not contacted the family immediately after the accident.

"It's every parent's worst nightmare to lose a child in a car accident, but to have to hear it on Facebook, then have to chase up the police yourself, is just horrifying," Mr Matelis said.

Bobby was "the best 17-year-old boy you could find", he said.

"He had a good career as a boat mechanic and had a bright future ahead of him."

Superintendent Ray Filewood defended the delay yesterday and said that police had difficulty confirming Bobby's identity.

"Once his identity was firmly established, St Marys police contacted Mt Druitt police to send a car to the Vourlis residence," he said.

"In the interim, Mrs Vourlis contacted St Marys police, who confirmed the death of their son."

Bobby was one of three teenagers killed when the Ford Falcon XR6 they were in slammed into a pole on the Great Western Highway at Colyton, near St Marys, at 3.15am.

The accident, and a single fatality at Gunning in the state's south, took this year's road toll to 51 - 23 more deaths than this time last year.

The P-plate driver and car owner Chris Naylor, 19, from Dean Park, was driving the group of friends home to their houses when he lost control in heavy rain.

Friends said he was a "good, fun guy" who had recently saved enough money to buy his dream car. "He was a good guy, good fun to be around . . . he didn't deserve to go like this," friend Tom Connor said.

Rear-seat passenger Kelsie Coleman, 15, from Bidwill, also died.

"Kelsie was a bright young girl. She was responsible . . . and she had the world at her feet," a family spokesman said.

The other rear-seat passengers - Racheal Graham, 17, of Bidwill, and Laura Daniels, 16, of Oakhurst, were treated at Nepean Hospital for multiple non-life threatening injuries.

Ms Daniels' uncle Rob Daniels said that while the young girl's injuries were minor, she would bear the emotional scars from the crash for the rest of her life.

"She will have to live with that forever. That's pretty tough," Mr Daniels said.

Eight hours after the Colyton deaths, a man's body was found in a crashed car at Gunning, near Yass.

His Nissan Navara utility had left the road and hit several pine trees.

Originally published as Death on Facebook first