UPDATE: Victoria Police is urging road users to take care after five fatalities in 48 hours over the weekend, including two in Brimbank.
A 45-year-old Hillside motorcyclist lost his life on Saturday afternoon when he lost control of the trail bike he was riding and hit a letterbox along Pimelea Way about 2.15pm. The man died at the scene.
In a separate incident, a 25-year-old Point Cook man died after being run over in St Albans later that night.
It is believed two men, who were known to each other, were walking on Furlong Road when they allegedly became involved in an altercation about 11.30pm on Saturday. This resulted in the Point Cook man laying on the road and being run over by a passing car. He later died at Sunshine Hospital.
In other incidents, an 86-year-old man died in hospital on Friday after his car collided with a caravan, a 22-year-old Dimboola man died after the car he was travelling in rolled on Katyil-Wail Road about 12.40am on Sunday, and a man in his 30s died after his car ran off the road and struck an embankment at Nirranda.
Also on Saturday, there was a crash at Dohertys Road in Truganina involving a ute and a truck. The ute driver was airlifted to The Alfred hospital in a serious but stable condition.
Road Policing Superintendent Michael Grainger said all five deaths were an absolute tragedy.
“This is devastating for these families who are now facing a future without their loved ones,” Superintendent Grainger said.
“Local communities have lost contributors and these incidents do send shockwaves through families, workplaces, schools and other groups.”
On Sunday, Victoria’s road toll reached seven – five more than at the same time last year.
Superintendent Grainger cited speed, alcohol, not wearing seat belts, driver distraction and fatigue among the factors leading to deaths and serious injury on the state’s roads.
With people returning to work and travelling home from summer holidays, he urged people to take care on the road.
Last year 248 people died on Victoria’s roads, five more than 2013.
Until 2014, Victoria’s road toll had been shrinking slowly for nine years.
Superintendent Grainger said the deaths were of “tremendous concern” to police.
“We are seeing speed and alcohol, we are seeing driver distraction and we are seeing the non-use of seatbelts in a lot of these collisions we have seen this weekend,” he said.
“Negate these behaviours and the roads should be safer for everyone.”
He said towards the end of last year police were concerned at the rate the 2014 road toll was increasing.
He said police implemented initiatives to tackle the rise, including public messaging and increasing road policing operations.
“Ultimately we can enforce only so much, the community has a responsibility to slow down, to drive when they are sober rather than intoxicated or affected by drugs, to observe the speed limits and to think about their fatigue and the use of mobile phones – particularly when driving,” he said.
– With Chris Hingston, The Age
