Optus' Triple Zero failure "unlikely" to have contributed to baby's death

An Optus network failure is now considered “unlikely” to have "contributed" to the death of an eight-week-old baby in South Australia, the state’s policy agency said.

In a statement about midday AEST on Sunday, SA Police said that “preliminary investigations” had found that a relative of the baby was able to place a call to Triple Zero using a different mobile phone in the house.

“While police would not normally provide commentary on individual circumstances of such deaths, in this instance the public interest in the matter requires this action,” SA Police said.

“The deceased boy’s grandmother has told investigating police that she attempted to call 000 using her mobile phone when she was alerted to the fact her grandson was not breathing.

“When her call was not connected, she immediately used another mobile telephone in the house and was successfully connected to 000.

“While the family was impacted by the Optus outage, it appears at this stage it is unlikely to have contributed to the death.”

SA Police said that “despite the failure of the first attempt to call 000 … preliminary investigations indicate the child’s death is not due to any delay in SA Ambulance Service attending the …house.”

The agency said that it would hand a full investigation over to the State Coroner, who would ultimately decide if an inquest is required.

The circumstances of a second death in the state that was linked to the Optus outage remain under investigation.

“That investigation is more complex and is continuing to determine the impact of the 000 outage on the death,” SA Police said.

A firewall upgrade by Optus unintentionally disabled Triple Zero calling for about 13 hours last Thursday. 

Three deaths were initially linked to the incident, and a fourth death in Perth later also connected; this reverts back to three, with SA Police’s findings.