Five dead in horror day as road toll hits record high in one Australian state

Daily Mail​

a day ago

Motorists have been urged to take care after five tragic deaths within 24 hours on West Australia roads.
The state's road toll currently stands at 103 lives lost so far in 2025 - the highest figure in a decade and 10 more than this time last year.
That figure will rise when the Road Safety Commission updates the road toll after this weekend.
WA Police Road Policing Commander Mike Peters and the state's Road Safety Commissioner Adrian Warner are frustrated with the mounting death toll.
They hope the latest tragedies will be a wake-up to motorists as the July school holidays get underway.
' That's five people that won't be at Christmas this year and five doors that had to be knocked on by our officers in the WA Police Force to make those absolutely tragic notifications,' Commissioner Peters said.
'I just want to reiterate speed, seatbelts, fatigue, alcohol and drugs and distraction remain to be over-represented in all these crashes.
'I'm not talking about the five [recent fatalities] specifically, but road deaths to this point are over-represented with those five factors.'
Several fatal crashes across claimed five lives within 24 hours across WA late last week.
The first incident claimed the life of a motorcyclist, 70 who collided with a tow truck at an intersection in Australind, in the state's south-west on Thursday afternoon.
A man, 40, died after colliding with a truck towing three tailers at Mariginiup, north of Perth on Friday.
Just 30 minutes later, a third motorist collided with a 51-year-old pedestrian, killing him instantly, in east Perth's Mundaring.
Later on Friday morning, a fourth man died when his 4WD struck a tree and caught alight in Serpentine, in south-east Perth.
Several hours later, a female passenger, 64 died after the vehicle she was travelling in vehicle struck a tree in Alfred Cove.
'It's incredibly frustrating that we have these sustained levels of deaths on our roads,' Mr Warner said.
'We need to be conscious about the risks on the road. We need to be conscious about the choices we make when we get behind the wheel.'
West Australia's government has set a goal for the state to reduce the number of people killed or seriously injured on its roads by 50 to 70 per cent before 2030.
'Population growth and the economic growth, which is good for our community and good for WA, is putting upward pressure on the road toll,' Mr Warner said.
Cameras with AI technology have been installed at more than 100 locations across Perth.
These cameras are the most advanced in the country and are currently in a trial phase, the government has said.
Fines generated by the cameras are expected to kick in by October.
'When we move into enforcement mode with these new cameras in a couple of months, we're expecting a big shift in behaviour,' Mr Warner said
'We don't want the money. We want people to change their behaviour and save lives.'