FED: Vic motorcyclist's death takes national road toll to seven

AAP General News (Australia)
04-03-2010
FED: Vic motorcyclist's death takes national road toll to seven

By Jeff Turnbull

MELBOURNE, April 3 AAP - The death of another motorcyclist has pushed Victoria's Easter
holiday road toll to three - and the national toll to seven - despite the biggest police
road blitz in the state's history.

More than 4000 police throughout Victoria are patrolling the roads and over 5000 motorists
have been fined.

But it hasn't stopped Victoria from leading the nation's road toll.

The latest death came just after 11am (AEDT) on Saturday when a 22-year-old man died
200 metres from his home after his motorcycle hit a tree and a parked car at Wantirna
in Melbourne's east.

That followed a double fatality where two riders collided in a head-on crash near Shepparton
on Friday.

Eighteen motorcyclists have been killed in Victoria in 2010 compared to eight for the
same time last year.

A frustrated Inspector Greg Parr says it has been a disappointing start to the Easter break.

"We've got three dead in the space of a couple of days - three motorcyclists, which
is even more distressing - I'm not sure what the way forward is for the the rest of Easter,"

Insp Parr said.

"They are killing themselves way out of their proportion.

"There is no justification or excuse for it."

On Friday in the ACT, a 46-year-old motorcyclist died after his bike left Uriarra Road,
north of Cotter Dam, and went down an embankment.

The rest of the country had not recorded any Easter Saturday fatalities and the nation's
toll stands at seven, with one death in NSW, one in South Australia and one in Western
Australia adding to the total.



(EDS: AAP's Easter road toll figures are for the period 0001 April 1 to 2359 April
5. Some states and territories may have different periods.)



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