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Fatal Kondinin crash: Tributes flow for William ‘Billy’ Bennett after life support turned off

Michael TraillThe West Australian
William ‘Billy’ Bennett died following a horror crash in Kondinin.
Camera IconWilliam ‘Billy’ Bennett died following a horror crash in Kondinin. Credit: GoFundMe/GoFundMe

A seven-year-old boy has died following a horror crash in the Wheatbelt — the sixth child to have lost their life in crashes on WA roads in just over a month.

Police on Tuesday revealed the family members of William “Billy” Bennett made the agonising decision to turn off his life support at Perth Children’s Hospital after the car he was a passenger in hit a tree near Kondinin at the weekend.

Billy, his nine-year-old brother Jacob and their 50-year-old father Damian Bennett all suffered serious injuries when the Nissan Navara ute Mr Bennett was driving veered off Williams-Kondinin Road, near Young Road on Saturday.

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The trio had to be airlifted to Perth for emergency medical treatment.

Despite desperate efforts to save Billy, his injuries were ultimately deemed unsurvivable.

Family friend Brooke Hamilton said Billy was a “bright, happy, cheeky and energetic kid who was so loved by everyone who met him”.

“His beautiful mum has been left devastated by this tragedy, and we, as a community would like to help her and her other children out,” she said.

William ‘Billy’ Bennett died following a horror crash in Kondinin.
Camera IconWilliam ‘Billy’ Bennett died following a horror crash in Kondinin. Credit: GoFundMe/GoFundMe

In what is a silver lining in an unimaginable tragedy, Billy’s organs will be donated to help save the lives of others.

Mr Bennett was on Tuesday night still in a stable condition in Royal Perth Hospital’s State Trauma Unit and Jacob has been discharged from hospital.

Billy’s death came a day after it was revealed a five-year-old had also died after she was involved in a crash in Dianella late last month.

Her family had also recently made the agonising decision to turn off her life support.

The little girl was a passenger in a white Toyota Kluger when it mounted a median strip on Dianella Drive and ploughed into a tree. The 64-year-old woman driving the car was taken to Royal Perth Hospital with serious injuries but her condition later improved.

A second girl, aged four, escaped injury.

Jackson Donovan, 6, was tragically killed in a multi-car crash in Rockingham as his mother drove him and his sister home from school on Friday, June 10.

A week later, on June 18, two 17-year-old boys, Ryleigh Land and Dale Martin, were killed when their car rolled over on South Western Highway in Wagerup.

In late May, a 15-year-old girl died after a car being driven by a 17-year-old was involved in a head-on crash on Gingin Brook Road near Neergabby.

While technically a young adult, 18-year-old Katie McGuire died on June 25 in a fatal crash in Feysville, near Kalgoorlie, on June 25.

And on Sunday, three-year-old Fynn Salter was left critically injured, and placed in an induced coma, after he was hit by a car while playing on the driveway in a shared apartment complex on Sunday.

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