Premier Roger Cook calls road safety emergency meeting after Pilbara fatal crash kills toddler

A spate of fatal car crashes has sparked the Government to convene an urgent meeting with road safety bodies, in a bid to tackle WA’s soaring road toll. As WA reeled from the death of another child on the State’s regional roads overnight, Premier Roger Cook said he had asked Road Safety Minister David Michael to convene a meeting of advocacy groups to ensure Government work to reduce the road toll was enough. The announce comes after major crash officers investigated a car rollover in De Grey, between Port Hedland and Pardoo, on Wednesday night The tragedy unfolded when a maroon-coloured Holden Captiva travelling on an access road near Great Northern Highway rolled, severely injuring the girl, who could not be saved and died at the scene. Five adults — three females and two males — received minor injuries. Mr Cook lamented that it was now becoming a daily occurrence that he had to speak to a road fatality. “My heart goes out to the families and all involved and the first responders who would have had to been on that scene to see these very distressing scenes as a result of this vehicle accident, and it just seems to go on, and it is distressing, she said. “The Government is spending a record amount of money on regional roads, a billion dollar program around regional roads, and just last week, we announced another $29 million for safety upgrades around the Great Northern Highway, in addition to $80 million for overtaking lanes to further improve the safety on that particular stretch of highway. “This is frustrating. It’s distressing.” Mr Cook said a road safety summit, which he would attend along with Mr Michael, would allow for discussion of WA’s road toll. “I’ve spoken with the Minister for Road Safety, and I’ve asked him to convene a meeting of road safety peak bodies for a meeting, for myself and the minister to discuss the recent spate of fatalities on our roads, to see what else we can do as a community to drive down the incidence of fatalities and accidents in our community,” he said. Prior to Wednesday night’s fatality in the Pilbara, the State’s road toll sat at 116 for the year, the equal highest for more than a decade. A sharp increase in deaths on WA regional roads has lead to the rise, jumping from 45 this time last year to 68 in 2024.