Investigation launched into whether death in regional SA hospital is linked to nationwide Telstra outage

Police are investigating whether a death this week is linked to the nationwide Telstra outage that left thousands of Australians unable to call triple-0.

An elderly person died in a regional hospital in South Australia on Wednesday, which Liberal Senator Kerrynne Liddle said in a statement happened during the Telstra outage that morning.

“After contact from Telstra, media and relevant authorities, my office advised the family to reach out to SAPOL directly. The grieving family did that today,” her statement read.

South Australian police confirmed officers spoke to Senator Liddle and a staff member at her office on Thursday.

“As a result, contact was subsequently made with the family of an individual who died at a regional hospital on Wednesday 8 July,” SA Police said, ABC News reported.

“Police were not notified of the death. After being advised of the death, police immediately commenced an investigation into the cause and circumstances.”

The cause or circumstances surrounding the death are not known but will now be subject to investigation.

Senator Liddle described the outage “completely unacceptable” and pointed to many being unable to call emergency services even 12 hours after the initial service breakdown.

“Anyone impacted by this outage should tell their story to Telstra, Minister Anika Wells and to relevant authorities. Our thoughts remain with the family,” she said.

Telstra Chief Financial Officer Michael Ackland on Thursday confirmed more than 600 customers were subject to welfare checks because of failed calls to triple-0.

“230 callers advised by sms responded that no assistance was required, 402 cases required follow-up voice calls, of those 402 cases, 170 calls were passed to the police for either further welfare check or assistance, and we had seven callers advised that they needed assistance in total, and their details were referred to the relevant emergency services organisations at that time.”

WA Police on Thursday said a total of three calls had failed to reach triple-0 in WA as a result of Telstra outage, before they were all deemed accidental.

“WA Police have conducted three welfare checks during the outage, with two calls originating from the same subscriber,” a spokesperson said.

Police around the country have been requested to conduct welfare checks after Telstra were unable to reach their customers who failed to connect with emergency services.

Thousands of customers were cut off when the network went dark about 2am (WA time) across the country on Wednesday.