Police are investigating whether the horrific car crash that killed four people, including a mother and daughter and their taxi driver, was a murder-suicide.
A gray Toyota RAV4 driven by a 43-year-old man who was driving on the wrong side of the Leach Highway in Cloverdale, Perth, collided with the taxi at around 3.40am on Monday.
Taxi driver Sendeku Tesema, 58, and his passengers (two women aged 56 and 81) who were in the back seat died on the spot.
The SUV, which was captured on dashcam just before the crash, burst into flames and the driver died at the scene.
The speed of the SUV driver and his decision to drive on the wrong side of the road towards oncoming traffic would be the focus of the investigation, WA Police Commissioner Col Blanch said.
“The investigation focuses on deliberate acts, if you like, sitting on the wrong side of the road and choosing to be there,” he told radio 6PR on Tuesday.
Police are investigating whether the horrific car crash that killed four people on Perth’s Leach Highway at 3.40am on Monday was a murder-suicide
Taxi driver Sendeku Tesema (pictured with his daughter) was one of the four dead
Mr Blanch said police were investigating whether the deliberate act was a murder-suicide, The West Australian newspaper reported.
“That’s certainly part of the investigation and we may come to that conclusion, but it’s too early to say,” he said.
The commissioner said the crash was “really sad for all the families involved.”
“This is a horrific crash… also for the first responders who attended that horrific scene… probably something that will remain burned in their memories for a long time,” he told the radio station.
Recovered dashcam footage from the burnt-out SUV shows the vehicle driving east along Orrong Road, in Perth’s east, before turning left and onto the Leach Highway exit on the wrong side of the road heading north towards the city’s airport.
Detective Senior Sergeant Hugh Le Tessier said on Monday that the driver had made a conscious decision to drive on the wrong side of the highway, but it was unclear why.
“That’s probably something we’ll never know,” he said.