Detectives investigating off-road bike crash at Melbourne party
Detectives are still trying to piece together the events that led to two teenagers dying and two young children suffering serious injuries in a collision involving dirt bikes in Melbourne's outer northwest.
Transcript
00:00 Police say they're investigating what they say is a tragedy that may have unfolded at
00:05 what they believe is a five-year-old's birthday party that was attended by about 50 people
00:10 in the suburb of Melton in Melbourne's outer west last night.
00:13 Now emergency services were called to the scene at about 6.30.
00:17 They say once they were there, they discovered that two off-road motorbikes had collided
00:21 with each other in a sealed public road.
00:23 An 18-year-old woman died at the scene and a 17-year-old boy was rushed to hospital where
00:27 he later succumbed to his injuries.
00:29 Now more people were involved in the accident.
00:32 Police are investigating how a 43-year-old man who is the deceased girl's father was
00:37 also himself injured.
00:39 They believe at this stage he may have been riding a quad bike to the scene to render
00:42 assistance when he collided with a traffic sign.
00:46 Interestingly, two children aged 6 and 11 were also injured.
00:50 What police don't currently know is how that came to be.
00:52 They say they've been interviewing the family members but have met some resistance in getting
00:56 those questions answered.
00:57 So that's one focus of their inquiries today.
01:00 What are the other focuses for police then at the moment, Jesse?
01:06 So Ros, police have seized all three vehicles, the two off-road motorbikes and the quad bike
01:12 involved in this accident.
01:14 They're obviously investigating whether issues like speed or alcohol may have been factors.
01:19 They say at this stage they know that the bikes were unlicensed and unregistered.
01:23 They don't think that lights were being used at the time and the detectives who were speaking
01:27 to us here a short time ago described this as a recipe for disaster.
01:32 So very tragic indeed.
01:34 They've also called on any witnesses who may know about the incident to come forward as
01:37 they continue to investigate.
01:39 If we zoom out a little, it's already been a tragic year on Victoria's roads with something
01:43 like upwards of 190 people lives lost on the state's roads so far this year.
01:50 Detective Senior Sergeant Paul Lynham spoke a little bit about the toll that that's taking
01:53 on police.
01:54 The issue we now have is as we get towards summer, as it gets hotter, we're going to
01:58 see more and more motorcyclists out on the road.
02:01 We've had 24 motorbike fatalities this year so far.
02:04 We know that historically this time of year we're going to have more and more bikes on
02:07 the road.
02:08 People have got to make sure that they've got the correct protective equipment, they've
02:11 got to ride to the conditions, they've got to look out for other road users and it's
02:15 a whole of community effort to make sure that we keep everyone safe on the roads.
02:19 It's Detective Senior Sergeant Paul Lynham addressing the media today.
02:22 No doubt there will be further updates as those investigations continue.
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