Two men aged 74 and 49 died after unsuccessfully attempting to call triple zero on Thursday when the telco was suffering a major national outage.
Two men aged 74 and 49 died after unsuccessfully attempting to call triple zero on Thursday when the telco was suffering a major national outage.
By Rebecca Peppiatt
Updated September 20, 2025 — 3.26pmfirst published at 10.17am
Premier Roger Cook’s office has confirmed a second person died after not being able to get through to emergency services when Optus suffered an outage on Thursday.
Cook spoke to media on Saturday following news that a 74-year-old man from Willetton had lost his life when he couldn’t get medical help via triple zero because of a failure of the network.
Later on Saturday, his office confirmed that a 49-year-old man from Kensington was the second WA victim.
An eight-week-old baby and a 68-year-old woman from South Australia also died during the outage, which stretched between 1am and 2pm on Thursday.
Cook said news of the second WA death came from police who had been conducting welfare checks since they were notified of the outage on Friday.
“We are saddened to learn of a new fatality in Western Australia which appears to have occurred during the outage period, and we have been advised by WA Police that they believe the individual likely attempted to contact triple zero for assistance,” a statement from Optus released on Saturday afternoon said.
“We will continue to work with WA Police and other agencies to understand more of what has occurred.”
Cook said that what had occurred was “completely unacceptable” and questioned the time it took for Optus to rectify the issue and notify authorities.
“This outage has put lives of Western Australians at risk, and my government will stop at nothing until Optus has fully, fully and clearly explained what has happened,” he said.
“Let me be clear, Optus must be held accountable for this incident. Unfortunately, the first time my government heard about this was late on Friday afternoon, and since then, we’ve sought urgent briefings and have been advised from several organisations, St John’s, ambulance and police.”
WA Health Infrastructure Minister John Carey said the incident was “absolutely shocking”.
“It is shocking and it is completely unacceptable that peoples’ lives have been put at risk and of course, with deep sadness I can confirm that one 74-year-old man has passed away and so the advice given to me is this matter will be referred to the coroner’s court for investigation,” Carey on Saturday morning.
“This news is only recent so I need to assure you, we find this absolutely shocking. It is unbelievable and the way that Optus has even just released the news I think is appalling, so my view is Optus should be condemned but now we have to work through what is flowing out from this.
“What I can say is that WA Police are now making safety checks of all the calls that did not get through.
“What is clear is that this has now put a risk to peoples’ lives. People were trying to call triple zero and could not. I join the South Australian premier – this is shocking, it is appalling, and clearly it is also of deep sorrow that a man has passed.”
Asked if he supported re-naming Optus Stadium, Carey said he just wanted to “focus on the issue at hand” and concentrate on the welfare checks.
The failure affected about 600 Optus customers in South Australia, the Northern Territory and WA.
WA opposition emergency services spokesman Rob Horstman has called for a thorough investigation.
“My take on this really is the Universal Service Obligation needs to be strengthened,” he said.
“I think that obviously the state government has a role, as they have done with many other issues in recent times, to put pressure on their federal government colleagues to ensure this happens.
“I mean that to me is that’s an untenable situation, which has resulted in three people tragically losing their lives across South Australia and WA, of course.”
A spokesperson for St John WA said they were not made aware of any issues involving Optus customers’ inability to contact Triple Zero, and had no briefing from Optus about any outage issues in recent days.
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Rebecca Peppiatt – is a journalist with WAtoday, specialising in crime and courts.Connect via email.