WA Premier Roger Cook says police are investigating whether a second person in Western Australia died after attempting to call triple-0 during an Optus outage on Thursday.
So far the outage has been linked to the deaths of three people, two in South Australia and one in WA.
On Saturday morning it was confirmed the death of a 74-year-old WA man had been linked to the outage.
Premier Cook later said that welfare checks being undertaken by police uncovered the death of a second person in WA, a 49-year-old man, who may have been trying to call triple-0.
“As a result of WA Police undertaking welfare checks, there is potentially another case of a West Australian [who] has been attempting to call triple-0 and passed away,” Premier Cook said.
WA Premier Roger Cook says police were investigating whether another person’s death had been linked to the Optus outage. (ABC News)
“We are awaiting confirmation of this latest incident.”
In a statement, Optus said it was aware of the update from WA Police.
“We are saddened to learn of a new fatality in Western Australia which appears to have occurred during the outage period,” the company said.
“We have been advised by WA Police that they believe the individual likely attempted to contact triple-0 for assistance.
“We will continue to work with WA Police and other agencies to understand more of what has occurred.”
The WA government said both deaths would be investigated by the coroner.
‘Dreadful tragedy’
Premier Cook said his government would “stop at nothing” to ensure Optus was held to account for the outage, which left about 600 people unable to make triple-0 calls on Thursday.
“What has occurred is completely unacceptable,” Premier Cook said.
“Optus must be held accountable for this incident.
“Unfortunately the first time my government heard about this was late on Friday afternoon.
“This is a dreadful, dreadful tragedy and it is so disappointing that is has occurred.
“People should have confidence that when they ring triple-0 that their call will be put through.”
What we know about the Optus outage
The incident was made public during a snap media conference on Friday, with the telco blaming a technical fault identified in the process of a network upgrade.
It left people in South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory unable to call triple-0.
On Friday night, South Australia Police said it had since identified the two deaths in its state, including that of an eight-week-old baby, that were acknowledged by Optus.
At a media conference on Saturday afternoon, Optus CEO Stephen Rue acknowledged that the “loss of the lives of three people” had been uncovered during welfare checks following the outage, which he confirmed had lasted 13 hours.
Earlier on Saturday, the WA Health Infrastructure Minister John Carey said the way the telco had revealed the news had been “appalling”.
“It is shocking and it is completely unacceptable that people’s lives have been put at risk,” Mr Carey said.
“It is unbelievable, and the way that Optus has even just released the news I think is appalling.
“WA Police are now making safety checks on the calls that did not get through and they’re working through that.”
‘Absolutely tragic’
WA federal MP Patrick Gorman described the outage as “absolutely tragic” and “completely unacceptable from an essential service like a telecommunications operator”.
He also flagged a federal inquiry into the incident.
Patrick Gorman wants answers on how the incident unfolded. (ABC News: Keana Naughton)
“Obviously, like every Australian, I want answers,” Mr Gorman said.
“We will have a full and thorough inquiry into this to get all of those answers as to whether the information was shared at the appropriate time, whether the appropriate actions were taken by Optus, and make sure there is absolute full transparency and full accountability.
“Our job as the Australian government is to make sure that there is a proper inquiry, that where Optus hasn’t met their obligations, they have the appropriate penalties applied to them and that we get full accountability from an essential service provider.”
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