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Mark Hinchliffe·
NewsMotorbike news
··14 Comments·1 min read

Rider in his 20s dies after tragic collision

victoria nsw cops police Horror bike crashes in two states collision vehicle multi geelong

A Victorian rider in his 20s has died after a tragic collision with a car that turned out in front of his motorcycle in Mont Albert, Melbourne, yesterday afternoon (3 April 2019).

Police are now appealing for witnesses or dashcam footage.

Without knowing the full details of the incident, it appears a classic case of a Sorry Mate I Didn’t See You (SMIDSY) collision.

Police say the motorcyclist was riding east along Mt Albert Rd about 5.50pm.

The brown Volkswagen Golf was travelling south on York St and turned right into Mount Albert Rd into the path of the motorcycle.

collision
Rudimentary map shows direction of vehicles

Tragic collision

The young rider received life-threatening injuries in the collision and later died in hospital.

Our sincere condolences to his family and friends.

The driver of the car was uninjured and is assisting police with their enquiries.

Nunawading Highway Patrol are investigating and are keen to speak to any witnesses or anyone in the area at the time with dash-cam footage.

Anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or submit a confidential report online at www.crimestoppersvic.com.au.

Lives lost

The tragic crash brings the total number of motorcyclist lives lost this year to 21 compared with 11 at the same time last year.

Last week, Victorian Police Operation Kinetic announced they would add 300 shifts over the next 10 weeks to increase patrols of the state’s roads.

The move is in response to the almost doubling of the state’s road toll.

See also

However, Operation Kinetic feature mainly country areas such as Bendigo, Dandenong, Epping and Shepparton.

Extra patrols may not have had any impact on this incident.

The tragic collision also follows a spate of four hit-and-run crashes in Melbourne involving motorcycles and cars in the past five weeks.

Concern over motorbike hit-run crashes collision
A recent hit-run crash in Melbourne

Riders have expressed concern that drivers are not only not looking for riders, but don’t value the lives of riders.

It could be a direct result of the recent bad press about the high rate of motorcycle fatalities in the state.

Sadly there have been no arrests so far in any of these four hit-run incidents.

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14 Comments

  1. Yet another driver that gets off Scott free!!!
    A person has died! The one at fault needs to be properly prosecuted!

  2. When will these drivers pay the price for killing motorcyclists? Tough new laws required to make them pay more attention.

  3. I’m going to express an unpopular opinion:

    It’s not the car driver’s responsibility to watch out for motorcyclists. It is ours to watch out for them.
    We choose to ride muddabikes.
    We choose to place ourselves in danger.
    We must understand that the onus is on us, the riders, to watch out for errant cars, buses and trucks.
    We can wail and cry and bleat as much as we want, but if we continue to ride then we must be willing to accept 100% responsibility for what happens to us.
    We can only change our own behaviour and by placing blame on others we often fail to acknowledge our own shortcomings.
    Motorbikes are in and of themselves not dangerous, but they are VERY intolerant of complacency, ineptitude and stupidity.
    It is sad that another rider has died, but placing the responsibility at the feet of the car driver fails to teach us the lesson of this rider’s death.

    1. Any car driver reading that would think it is fine to turn in front of bikes or change lanes on top of them, have a head-on etc etc because it is expected and deserved behaviour (a notion reinforced by the legal system).

      1. How many car drivers read Motorbike Writer?

        I’m not addressing car drivers. I’m addressing motorbike riders.

        I thought that was self-evident.
        My bad.

        1. Patrick, I agree with your comments about we as motorcyclist are responsible for our own safety. We can’t lay the blame at other drivers we need to be better riders to survive.

          This accident is a case of motion camaflouge, he saw the car but the car didn’t see or acknowledged his perceived movement of approaching closer.

          So we need to alert drivers by breaking the camouflage and change direction as we approach. I know we can’t be weaving around on the road all the time, but in certain situations it has made me noticable so I know it works.

          There are so many unexplained factors that contribute to these type of accidents, but the onus does rest with us as riders.

          My young 23yr old son has just got his 1st bike so I know how vulnerable they are. Hell I lost a brother many years ago when he was 19 and it took me nearly 40 years at the age of 50 to get my bike license I’m now 57 and I love every minute of riding.

          My heart goes out to this families loss, no words can describe the feeling. But we do what we do because we love it as so many other things can take your life.

          Ride safe and always as if there are out to get you.

  4. Not sure any amount of police patrols will stop this kind of tragic incident. But the propaganda continues Somehow it will be attributed to speed. Of the motorcyclist.
    It’s not always our fault and it’s not because we ride “quickly” sometimes.
    I don’t know about anyone else, but my wife (who rides her own as well as pillion with me) and I both see a lot of drivers thinking that they are in some kind of competition with motorcyclists.

  5. I first rode a bike when I was 15 and loved it. When I got married in my mid twenties I gave up riding because it is a high risk activity and I had a family and mortgage to look after. I returned to riding 5 years ago at the age of 62, mortgage gone, kids gone (wife still here)..

    Everytime I go out riding my wife hugs me and says “I love you” as if its the last time she will ever see me. I am so anal about my concentration and lookout for hazards on the road that its exhausting. But I know that no matter what I do, I could find myself in circumstance in which I have no control, the same circumstances that this young rider found himself in. I know that the way in which he died could happen to anyone including me.

    But you can’t wrap yourself up in cotton wool as life is meant to be lived. Like all riders that get on a motorcycle, they love what they do and I hope that his family con take some solace knowing that he died doing what he loved.

    I add my condolences to his family and friends.

  6. It’s the Volvo effect!
    Car drivers are lulled into a false belief that they are good safe drivers because they drive at the speed limit in a safe vehicle. The more they reinforce this belief with advertising about the dangers of speeding and crash safety ratings of vehicles the more incompetent and dangerous drivers become.
    It’s about time the authorities got serious about safety instead of revenue and spent some of it on proper driver education not just more jingoistic speed kills BS

  8. This young man was our nephew, a great rider, a great person. Our lives will be forever changed, our hearts are broken. We are riders, we know the risks. BUT look people!! before you just take off!!! A young man, a heart broken family and a devastated Mother, Father and siblings.

  9. The states government should impose a zero tolerance for this kind of accident. It seems to me drivers are supplied with a license to kill .

  10. It’s all very well to shift the blame onto the victim and offer a list of “things to do”. We all know this stuff and most are inherently aware of the risks but there are time when you can’t watch everything, cars not giving right of way while you’re fighting off a stupid tailgater. We’ve all been there. One of the things most needed is driver education and a separate section in the car driving / training/ instructor’s head devoted to an awareness and respect for motor bikes and riders. Followed by severe punishment for car drivers found guilty of causing serious avoidable accidents.
    An Ex WA Police Commissioner remarked some time ago that he had been riding bikes for over 40 years and the only way he had been able to stay alive was to treat every car driver with suspicion.

  11. This really upsets me! I’ve been riding for 48 years and it really shits me when a driver
    Will say that they didn’t see the motorbike.
    So I’m assuming that this would have been the drivers first response to the police?
    All modern motorcycle headlights come on automatically when the bike is started so if a driver can’t see a frigin head headlight day or night we really have a problem.
    Drivers need to be educated to look out for motorcycles I just wonder how many drivers pull out in front of motorcycle Cops?
    Tracy I’m so sorry for your loss..
    Jeff

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