A young soccer player died from injuries sustained in a terrible accident a week ago in which two of his teammates also died.
Emergency services were called to Wallwork Road in Wedgefield, on Western Australia’s north coast, after a car crashed into a lamp post at around 9.20pm on June 10.
Brandon Krakouer, 24, was pronounced dead at the scene, while Jermayne Smith, 25, died at the hospital shortly after.
Harley Corbett, 22, was flown to Perth, where he spent a week in critical condition before his loved ones made the heartbreaking decision to take him off life support on Sunday.
At that moment the three of them were sitting in the back seat.
The driver, 25, and the front seat passenger, 25, escaped with minor injuries.
Harley Corbett (pictured) has been taken off life support after suffering injuries in a crash that also claimed the lives of his two companions.
Family and friends have posted numerous tributes to the trio, who were remembered as talented football players across WA.
Corbett played four games for the Peel Thunder reserve team in the WAFL last year after previously playing in the Colts division in 2020.
The club was “deeply saddened” to learn of Corbett’s death.
“Harley will be deeply missed. “Our thoughts are with Harley’s family and friends at this time,” the club wrote.
A friend of Mr Corbett remembered him as someone who “touched many hearts”.
“Always smiling and laughing, I miss you, my brother,” he wrote.
Corbett was also a teammate at the Belmont Football Club with Smith, who was honored as the best in the grand final won by the team last year.
“Mayney will be remembered by his coaches and teammates as an extremely talented and athletically gifted football player with a cheeky smile that lit up his teammates and those around him,” the Belmont Bombers Senior Football Club posted.
The club honored Smith over the weekend, with all players on its three teams wearing black armbands in memory of their fallen teammate.
“Move to each other guys, rest in peace and fly high, our 15th brother forever,” the post ended.
Another friend of the trio remembered him and Krakouer as “absolute freaks of nature in their own fields.”
“They had the world in the palm of their hands, the sky was the limit for my brothers,” he wrote.
Jermayne Smith (pictured) died shortly after the crash in Wedgefield, northern Western Australia.
The accident and subsequent deaths have shocked the entire local indigenous Noongar community.
The trio lived in Perth but had returned to Wedgefield to visit family over the June long weekend.
Several families and the indigenous Noongar community were severely affected by the accident, said Aboriginal advocate Mervyn Eades.
“Jermayne was an exceptional young footballer… He was always very involved in the Noongar football carnivals,” Eades said. Western Australia.
‘Harley has a son… and is expecting another child. He is a fantastic young footballer. The football community is suffering because of this.
“Brandon has strong family connections to Mt Barker…everyone is hurting.”