Optus Triple Zero incident “unlikely” to have contributed to baby’s death

An Optus network failure is now deemed “unlikely” to have contributed to the tragic death of an eight-week-old baby in South Australia, according to the state’s policy agency. In a statement released around midday AEST on Sunday, South Australia Police indicated that preliminary investigations revealed a relative of the baby successfully placed a call to Triple Zero using a different mobile phone in the household. While it is uncommon for police to comment on individual cases of such deaths, they acknowledged the public interest in this matter. The deceased boy’s grandmother informed investigators that she initially attempted to call 000 when she realised her grandson was not breathing. After her first call failed to connect, she quickly used another mobile phone in the house and was able to reach 000.

Despite the family’s experience with the Optus outage, preliminary findings suggest that it is unlikely to have played a role in the child’s death. South Australia Police stated that the child’s death does not appear to be linked to any delays in the response of the SA Ambulance Service. The agency plans to forward the full investigation to the State Coroner, who will determine if an inquest is necessary. Meanwhile, the investigation into a second death associated with the Optus outage remains ongoing, as it is more complex and aims to assess the impact of the 000 outage on that incident. A firewall upgrade by Optus inadvertently disabled Triple Zero calling for approximately 13 hours last Thursday, initially linking three deaths to the incident, with a fourth death in Perth later connected; however, the findings from South Australia Police have reverted this number back to three.