Police plea for patience on heaving highways as Great Southern endures worst start to year in over a decade

A tragic festive period went from bad to worse on Great Southern roads on Sunday when a 17-year-old girl was killed on a family holiday on Albany Highway near Mt Barker. The girl’s death is the fourth fatal crash in the Great Southern Police District in three weeks, after a 75-year-old man was killed on Albany High-way in Narrikup on December 22. A 22-year-old man was killed in a crash near Boddington last Friday, while a 61-year-old woman died near Kukerin on January 4. The Road Safety Commission confirmed it was the worst start to a year on Great Southern roads in at least a decade. Great Southern Supt Ian Clarke said police wanted to give their deepest sympathies to the family of the 17-year-old girl killed near Mt Barker on Sunday. “It was a very traumatic scene,” Supt Clarke said. “The tragedy is the poor family will be forever reminded of what happened.” Supt Clarke said there was a trend with serious crashes happening at either end of the Perth to Albany journey. “A lot of people are coming down here for the first time,” he said. “While 400km is not a huge distance, it is four or 41/2 hours of driving. We see a lot of end-of-journey crashes. There is a lot between Williams and Armadale, and a lot between Cranbrook and the start of Mt Barker.” Supt Clarke said attending fatal crash scenes was extremely difficult for all first responders, including police officers, paramedics and firefighters. “We need to make sure we look after them as well,” he said. “They may go from a fatal crash to a sudden death or a domestic violence job, and it can be one thing after another. Caring for our people is so important, who continue to go out and deal with these horrific situations. A split-second has contributed to this, one mistake that someone has made. “That is why we need people doing things to mitigate that risk.” Supt Clarke said fatigue and inattention continued to be major factors in serious accidents in his police district. He said the increase in traffic on regional roads meant patience was more important than ever. Main Roads WA data shows traffic on Albany Highway north of Albany has been up by more than 1000 vehicles per day at stages throughout the festive period. “I have officers questioning me, saying ‘Boss, what else can we do?’,” he said. “There was a significant police presence here over the weekend, and despite that we still had this incident.”