Optus outage: Police Commissioner Col Blanch reveals new details of WA deaths linked to triple-0 failureJessica PageThe West AustralianMon, 22 September 2025 1:11PMEmail Jessica Page
One of the WA men who died during Optus’ triple-0 outage made it to hospital but the second did not after their calls for help went unanswered, WA’s top cop has revealed.
Police Commissioner Col Blanch said both men had suffered medical episodes.
“One of the (families’) primary questions of us was what happened to triple-0,” he said.
“Like the family, we’re asking the same question. I think the whole state is and the whole country is asking those questions.
“Your heart goes out to these families. It’s tragic. I’ve spent my whole career in law enforcement knowing that triple-0 is the thing that gets help for people, and on this occasion, it just didn’t.”
The deaths of two Perth men, aged 74 and 49, and a 68-year-old woman in Adelaide have been linked to last week’s Optus outage that meant about 600 calls to triple zero failed to connect.
WA Police have revealed they were only asked to do welfare checks on 26 callers on Thursday night, more than 22 hours after what was initially described as a “minor” outage that had been repaired.
If there’s one number we want to get right it is triple zero.
It was only on Friday afternoon that WA Police was told there was a total of 149 missed calls in WA, while St John WA and the State Government only found out when Optus held a press conference.
Mr Blanch told reporters police immediately went door-to-door to confirm people were safe, and pointed the finger at Optus for failing to notify other emergency services at all.
“I want to be very clear about this. The role of escalation on a triple zero outage is, in fact, the telecommunications carrier. That is the national triple zero protocol,” he said.
“The reason for that is it’s a national outage, so you can’t rely on individual services, whether it’s police, fire or ambulance of each state to notify anyone else, the carrier has the responsibility to notify the State Government.
“Our job during the triple-0 protocols is to do the welfare checks after the telecommunications carrier is unable to make contact with them.
“So they make two contacts, I think, approximately, and then our job is to put boots on the ground and go and follow up on those welfare checks.”
He said police are urgently seeking answers from Optus, as two coronial investigations get underway, in a bid to restore public confidence in the system.
“The community should be shocked,” he said. “If there’s one number we want to get right it is triple-0.”
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