‘Dark places’: Daniel Campo speaks out, shares new details of night Nick died

Daniel Campo has described his state of mind nearly eight weeks on from his 18-year-old son Nick’s car crash death, and revealed details about modifications allegedly made to the car involved.

Campo on Monday addressed a behind-closed-doors summit with the premier, deputy premier, police commissioner, minister for road safety and industry leaders.

Nick Campo died in a car accident.

He told Radio 6PR’s Gary Adshead on Tuesday that running a major road safety campaign while dealing with the shock and grief of his loss felt like “making a movie, with a different scene every day”, and he sensed it would stretch out for months and years ahead.

He felt it was to some degree automatic, and he and wife Bianca were letting themselves be carried by the momentum and the campaign was keeping them going.

“I’m sure there will be a lot more grief to come but we’re just in that zone that we want to help,” he said.

“There are times the brain takes you to dark places.

“It’s difficult to explain, the void.”

He revealed he had been told the driver allegedly reached 135 km/h and lost control of the car, which had allegedly been extensively modified, with seat belts “tucked up” behind the back seat, airbags removed, a sway bar removed and the passenger seat facing the rear.

The 17-year-old, who can’t be named for legal reasons, was originally charged with dangerous driving occasioning death, but the charge was upgraded to manslaughter on August 25.

The accused will appear in Perth Children’s Court on the new charge this month.

Campo urged parents to inspect their children’s cars and discourage them from getting late-night lifts home with friends who had only just got their licences.

But he took heart that people were having conversations about teenage reckless driving and said it was “helping us a lot” as he and his wife tried to challenge an entrenched culture.

“Reaching down for your phone; a couple of extra beers are the pub; it can cause disastrous consequences,” he told Adshead.

“I don’t want you, your wife, anyone … to ever, ever have to stand over their son’s coffin like we had to do.

“I know it’s a cliche, but it has to start today, don’t ever think this won’t happen to you.

“It’s like being thrown into a jail cell, they put the lock on and we know we’ll never get out.

“We try not to talk about what Nick could have been, what he could have done, we try to focus on what he did.”

He said he worried about his wife and his two other children, one of whom a 22-year-old who was now driving herself.

He said he had tried to have a positive rather than critical approach at the road safety summit but had highlighted that the effort needed to be “better than OK” and urged officials to take their jobs seriously and back his campaign.

He also said he spoke to WA Police Commissioner Col Blanch on Monday about raising police presence on country roads, saying plain cars, even if present, were not a visible deterrent.

“I was told 2 years ago there were 200 police motorcycles on our roads and today there are only 50,” he said.

Get the day’s breaking news, entertainment ideas and a long read to enjoy. Sign up to receive our Evening Edition newsletter.