Police scrambling to do more welfare checks in WA as Optus confirms 000 outage lasted 17 minutes longer

Police are scrambling to confirm the welfare of another West Australian, after investigations uncovered more triple-0 calls that failed to connect during an Optus outage that has sparked national outrage. It was revealed on Monday afternoon that the outage lasted longer than the first telco said, with calls also imyepacted between 12.17am and 12.30am on Thursday. An additional seven calls went unanswered, including four from WA. Two calls were cleared by Optus, and two were referred to WA Police. One of those people still remains unaccounted for. It comes as police revealed data around which emergency services West Australians were trying, but failing, to get through to during the outage. Two callers were trying to get through to the Department of Fire and Emergency Services, 32 were trying to get through to St John WA for medical help, and 113 were trying to contact WA Police. Data around the two new welfare checks is not yet available. Earlier, Police Commissioner Col Blanch said the community “should be shocked,” after Optus initially described the outage as minor and only contacted police 22 hours after it happened. It was only on Thursday afternoon that the extent of the disaster was revealed, with more than 600 calls missed, two deaths in Perth and one in Adelaide. Mr Blanch confirmed 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. 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. 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.” The State’s ambulance union called it a “catastrophic failure” and called for an immediate review of Optus’ emergency telecommunications infrastructure. “We cannot allow further avoidable tragedies,” an Ambulance Employees Association of WA spokesperson said. “The fact that Optus received warnings that people couldn’t reach emergency services, yet failed to act for nearly 14 hours, is deeply disturbing. “Every minute counts in emergency response, particularly when lives hang in the balance.” Acting Premier Rita Saffioti said Roger Cook expressed WA’s “complete disgust” when he spoke to Optus chief executive Stephen Rue on Saturday. She agreed public trust in triple zero has been eroded, and said it “could” warrant a royal commission but stopped short of requesting one. “We’ll see what happens at the Federal level in relation to that inquiry, they are powerful regulatory authorities,” Ms Saffioti told ABC Mornings. “It’s something that we may follow up, but we’ll just see first the breadth of the existing inquiry that has been announced. “We need these answers as soon as possible too, I’d say, and to make sure that the processes are put in place that are completely fool-proof.” She didn’t rule out a further review of State Government contracts with Optus, but again delayed any decision about Optus signage amid calls to axe the telco’s $50 million deal for the Burswood stadium’s naming rights. “Optus has acted very badly, disgracefully,” Ms Saffioti said. “So I understand those people’s views (but) in relation to what we’re doing at the moment, our priority is very much on the families and making sure that . . . this type of disaster never happens again.”