Horror weekend on Australian roads

A motorcyclist died at Wyndham Vale in Melbourne’s outer west on Saturday after crashing his bike and flying off.

The rider crashed his motorbike at about 2.25pm on Pascolo Way and was found dead at the scene.

He is yet to be formally identified.

Police revealed on Sunday that a man who had crashed into a tree in Victoria’s east, near Sale, died in hospital.

The 55-year-old male driver from Maffra was travelling northwest on Sale-Heyfield Rd in Fulham at about 3.40pm on September 16.

Police believe he lost control of his vehicle, subsequently colliding with a tree.

He was taken to hospital with life-threatening injuries where he later died.

Investigations into both incidents are ongoing and police have urged anyone with further information to come forward.

A woman also died in New South Wales on Friday after she was struck by a car in Maroubra in Sydney’s east.

The woman, aged in her 70s, was found with critical injuries after she was hit by a vehicle on Fitzgerald Ave just before 5pm.

She was treated by paramedics but died at the scene, and is yet to be formally identified.

An uninjured female driver was taken to hospital for mandatory testing and a crime scene was established at the site of the incident, later undergoing examinations by the Crash Investigation Unit.

On Friday a 86-year-old male pedestrian was also fatally hit by a car near Brisbane.

A Hyundai i30 was reversing at a property on Demarco Court in Brendale just before 11am before it struck the man, continuing across the road where it collided with a fence.

The 86-year-old man was taken to hospital with critical injuries where he died later that evening.

The driver, an 81-year-old Brendale woman, was treated for minor injuries and investigations into the incident are ongoing.

In Tasmania police charged a man for driving at nearly seven times the legal limit on Saturday.

At about 12.15pm emergency services were called to a minor two-vehicle collision on Frederick St where a 54-year-old man was taken into custody.

Subsequent breath analysis returned a reading of 0.349 — about seven times the legal limit blood alcohol limit.

This comes after new data from the Department of Transport found that as of August 2023 road deaths had increased 8.4 per cent across the country compared to the 12 months prior.

Originally published as Separate collisions on our roads claim at least four lives over the weekend