UPDATE: The third person has died, and the driver has been charged with three counts of dangerous driving causing death and one count of failing to stop for police.

TWO people died and a third is in hospital with life-threatening injuries following a high-speed car crash in Cockburn Central Wednesday night.

Police say at about 9.45pm, a 25-year-old man turned off his headlights and sped along the wrong side of North Lake Road in an attempt to force a marked police vehicle to abort a high-speed pursuit.

While the police car did back off the man ran off the road shortly after and hit a tree, the impact splitting the Holden Calais in two.

Killed in the crash were a 24-year-old man from Albany and a 25-year-old Huntingdale woman. A 19-year-old Spearwood man is in a critical condition and the driver, from South Lake, is in hospital with less serious injuries.

Names have not been released.

In a separate incident a motorcycle rider died earlier in the day after clipping a van which had been turning right on Quill Way, Henderson.

The accident happened at 3pm as hundreds of workers from the boatbuilding precinct were knocking off work and rushing to beat the gridlock that clogs up the streets.

The man was taken to hospital but later died from his injuries.

There have been calls for lights to be installed at the corner of Quill Way and Cockburn Road, including by Cockburn Labor MLA Fran Logan, as cars bank up almost 100-deep trying to turn right into Cockburn Road.

Police are calling for witnesses to both accidents.