A New Zealand-born rugby league player was killed after the car he was driving collided head-on with a minivan as he attempted to overtake a truck on the Great Eastern Highway between Kalgoorlie and Perth in Western Australia.

Diego Codyre, a former member of the Canberra Raiders under-20s team in 2008-09, was killed instantly - his passenger Luke Adams, 20, and the driver of the minivan, father of three Aiden Ashcroft (38) also died and 10 other people were injured, in the crash on Friday.

Police say Codyre, who was working in the Kalgoorlie mining industry, ran out of room when he tried to overtake the truck.

The Herald-Sun newspaper reported the 23-year-old moved to Brisbane from New Zealand as a child and grew up in Queensland before joining the Raiders as a promising second rower.

The Canberra Raiders expressed their condolences to Codyre's family through their Facebook page.

About 8pm yesterday they posted: "The Canberra Raiders would like to pass on our deep condolences to the family and friends of Diego Codyre who sadly passed away yesterday. Diego played in the Toyota Cup for the Raiders in 2008 and 2009 and was an avid fan of the club.

"Rest in Peace Diego."

Karlgoorlie Senior Detective Sergeant Garry Nicolau has told newspaper the West Australian that inappropriate passing was likely to have something to do with the crash.

He said it appeared the driver of the Falcon was overtaking when it was "quite clearly unsafe to do so". 

Codyre's passenger Luke Adams, who was also killed, was from Hastings and had moved to Australia earlier this year.
His father Shane Adams, who still lives in Hastings, posted on Facebook about the grief of losing his son.

"Its so painful to lose a loved one especially a family member so young and such a cool son that make you laugh and cry, joke around and still packed a sad when he didn't get his way. [sic]

"Son you will be missed everyday love you dad. Writing this post is hard tears running down my face."

He said their family would be bringing Luke home.

"We are coming to get you bring you back to your home land R.I.P LUKE."

Luke was also a young father, and leaves behind a toddler son.

- © Fairfax NZ News