‘Hard decision’: Truck driver praised for fatal crash intervention

Police have praised the actions of a truck driver who raised the alarm after a double fatality in WA’s remote Mid West. Mid West Gascoyne District Insp. Dave Hooper said the truck driver who came across the scene of a single car crash on Wednesday, August 26, “did a magnificent job”. “He had to make a hard decision, ‘do I stay or do I go?’ Because of the remoteness he had no comms,” Insp. Hooper said. The driver elected to drive towards Wiluna until he came within mobile phone range — a trip of about 160km — when he was able to call police. Police were alerted to the crash, which was believed to have occurred around midnight, at 8.30am. A survivor of the crash, in which a man and a woman lost their lives, was trapped inside the car with the two deceased until help came. She was driven to Ngangganawili Aboriginal Health Service in Wiluna with what was believed to be non-life threatening injuries. “It’s a horrible situation,” Insp. Hooper said. “People have been in situ for at least eight hours before help came.” The crash occurred on Wiluna North Road, a remote and unsealed connection between Wiluna and Great Northern Highway which bypasses Meekatharra. Raelene Hall, who lives at Neds Creek Station along Wiluna North Road, said she had heard the crash occurred near the turn-off for Great Northern Highway. “It’s a very remote area, not many people live out here. “It’s a gravel road, I’m unsure what the speed limit is but I wouldn’t be driving fast on it,” she said. “There’s been a lot more traffic on the Wiluna North Road since COVID because its faster to head north from Kalgoorlie than to pass through Meekatharra.” A spokeswoman for WA Police said the names of the deceased individuals, who were travelling south from a remote community near Newman, would not be released for cultural reasons. Police from Meekatharra and Wiluna were on-site at the location of the crash until major crash investigators arrived from Perth. The investigation is ongoing.