By Marcus Uhe
Four separate road accidents across Melbourne involving motorcyclists on Friday 22 July, including a fatality in Narre Warren South, has Victoria Police concerned about relationship between riders and car drivers on the road.
A man died on Narre Warren-Cranbourne Road on Friday night after colliding with a car outside Casey Central Shopping Centre around 8.30pm, while earlier in the night another man also lost his life in Southbank after colliding with a truck.
Elsewhere, incidents involving motorcyclists in Clyde North and Hoppers Crossing resulted in critical and life-threatening injuries, respectively.
The two fatalities took the Victorian Road Toll to 140 as of Saturday 23 July, including 31 motorcyclists, an increase of six from the same period in 2021.
Superintendent Road Policing Operations and Investigation John Fitzpatrick described the increase as a “worrying trend”.
“So far this year we’ve lost 31 motorcyclists and I think it’s really important to understand that whilst we’re always talking numbers here, there are people behind these numbers, people and families,” Supt Fitzpatrick said.
“We talk about numbers but there’s people and families that are never going to have a loved one sitting around the table anymore.
“These figures are alarming and some of the anecdotal evidence that we see is that coming out of Covid-19, people aren’t used to sitting in traffic for long periods of time and they’re choosing a mode of transport that maybe is a bit, allows them to do that.”
Supt Fitzpatrick attributed a number of factors to the increase, including fuel prices, inexperienced riders, having seen more motorbikes on the road “than ever before”, and that some of the skills of experienced riders have “perished” due to a lack of travel in recent years.
He said these incidents should serve as a reminder for drivers and riders that they have a “shared responsibility” on the road to understand their surrounds.
“What often occurs, and this we learn through our major collision area which I manage, is that we see collisions where that occurs and the car slightly changes lane, so there’s a collision with the bike into the side of the car as (the motorbike) lands, takes the mirror off, settles in and then he ends up cartwheeling.
“Once you’re flipping over, your chances of surviving that, through neck injuries, you can be wearing the best gear in the world but if you hit something hard enough, you’re going to die, or you’re going to have such a traumatic injury that your life is never going to be same again. These are the things that we constantly see.
“We ask people to please be sensible about the way they drive and the way they ride motorbikes.”
The exact circumstances surrounding the collisions are yet to be determined and investigations remain ongoing.
Greater Dandenong Highway Patrol are appealing for witnesses to the Narre Warren South collision involving a red Toyota Camry and a black Suzuki motorbike.
The bike was bearing the false plates ‘ROSTA’ and witnesses reported the bike was driving erratically prior to the collision, police said.
In what was a horror 24 hours on the roads, a man in his 40s died in Mount Waverley after his vehicle crashed into a pole on Huntingdale Road.
Anyone who witnessed the collisions or with dashcam footage or further information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or submit a confidential report online at crimestoppersvic.com.au
