A 37-year-old man has died in a rural crash that has added more devastation to a state’s shocking road toll.
The driver was behind the wheel of an orange Kia Rio sedan that left the road and struck a tree on Fisheries Rd in Merivale, near Esperance on WA’s south coast, about 6.05am on Wednesday.
The man — the sole occupant of the vehicle — died at the scene near Savage Rd.
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Major Crash officers are leading the investigation and anyone with information or footage of the area at the time of the incident should contact Crime Stoppers.
The Road Safety Commission has recorded 135 fatalities on WA roads in 2026, the highest number for this point of the year in more than a decade.
The latest road tragedy comes after the death of two drivers — men aged 45 and 60 — in a head-on highway crash in Hamelin Pool near Shark Bay on Monday morning.
A 12-year-old boy and a woman in her 50s were seriously injured in the crash involving a RAM utility towing a caravan and a Toyota LandCruiser, and the pair remain in hospital in a stable condition.
WA Police Commissioner Col Blanch said Major Crash is investigating if one of the vehicles drifted into the wrong lane of traffic.
Premier Roger Cook said on Tuesday that the government is investing in road infrastructure upgrades and education programs to keep the road toll down.
”We’ve got significant investment in new technology to make sure that we can impress upon people the importance of abiding by the road rules and as I’ve always said we need the community to play its part as well,” he said.