Three young people died near Narrogin, and WA’s road toll has passed all of last year with six weeks still to drive

Western Australia’s road toll for 2026 has reached 186, passing last year’s full-year total of 184 with about six weeks of the year still to go, after five people died in crashes across the state in 48 hours.

The worst came on Friday morning near Narrogin, in the Wheatbelt about 192 kilometres south-east of Perth, where a Ford Falcon hit trees. A 21-year-old man, a 22-year-old woman and a 23-year-old man died.

On Friday evening, two motorcycles collided on Mandurah Road at Dudley Park. The 35-year-old rider of a Kawasaki died at the scene; the rider of a Triumph suffered injuries that are not life-threatening. In the South West, a 41-year-old man died when the Toyota LandCruiser he was driving hit a tree on Donnybrook-Boyup Brook Road.

How bad is this year?

The state is on track for its worst road toll in a decade. Passing last year’s total in mid-November means every death from now until 31 December adds to a gap that is already open, and the roads are about to get busier: harvest trucks are on country roads across the southern grain belt, and holiday traffic builds from early December.

Narrogin shire president Leigh Ballard called the crash a “terrible tragedy for the town” and asked drivers to slow down.

Who is responsible for fixing it?

The opposition’s road safety spokesperson, Julie Freeman, called it “a heartbreaking milestone” and said it should ring alarm bells in government. She said the 8,000-kilometre network of local government roads, where many regional crashes happen, was being neglected.

State minister Amber-Jade Sanderson said it had been “a terrible few days on the roads”. She said the government had spent about a billion dollars on road safety over the past decade, including AI-enabled cameras and education, and that drivers needed to change their behaviour too.

A government spokesperson said the state was investing $3.6 billion in regional roads over four years, and had committed $125 million over five years to extend its Regional Road Safety Program, which has treated about 10,000 kilometres of regional roads since 2020, onto local roads.

What does it mean for anyone driving this summer?

Four of this weekend’s five deaths came on country roads in the Wheatbelt and the South West, in two cars that left the road and hit trees. Traffic on those roads will only grow as harvest continues and families head away for summer. Ballard’s message to anyone driving was simple: slow down and drive safe.

VNN will update this story as more is confirmed.