Police are investigating whether a horrific car crash that killed four people, including a mother, daughter and her taxi driver, was a murder-suicide.
A gray Toyota RAV4 driven by a 43-year-old man traveling on the wrong side of Leach Highway in Cloverdale, Perth, collided with the taxi about 3.40am on Monday.
The taxi driver Sendeku Tesema, 58, and his passengers, two women aged 56 and 81, who were sitting in the back seat, died at the scene.
The SUV, which was recorded by its dashboard camera speeding in the moments before the accident, was engulfed in flames and its driver died at the scene.
The speed of the SUV driver and his decision to travel on the wrong side of the road into oncoming traffic would be the focus of the investigation, WA Police Commissioner Col Blanch says.
“The investigation focuses on deliberate acts, so to speak, being on the wrong side of the road and choosing to be there,” he told 6PR radio on Tuesday.
Police are investigating whether a horror car crash that killed four people on the Leach Highway in Perth at 3.40am on Monday was a murder-suicide.
Taxi driver Sendeku Tesema (pictured with his daughter) was among the four lives lost
Blanch said police were investigating whether the deliberate act was a murder-suicide, according to The West Australian newspaper.
“That’s certainly part of the investigation and we can come to that conclusion, but it’s too early to say,” he said.
The commissioner said the accident was “really sad for all the families involved.”
“This is a horrible accident… also for the first responders who attended that horrible scene… probably something that will stay in their memory for a long time,” he told the radio station.
Footage recovered from the burnt-out SUV’s dash cam shows the vehicle traveling east on Orrong Road in east Perth before turning left and going up the Leach Highway off-ramp on the wrong side of the road. road heading north towards the city airport.
Detective Sergeant Hugh Le Tessier said on Monday the driver had made a conscious decision to drive on the wrong side of the road, but it was not clear why.
“That’s probably something we’ll never know,” he said.