By KATH GANNAWAY
A MOTOR-BIKE rider was killed on Saturday morning, when he lost control of his bike and crashed at Hoddles Creek.
Police said the Watsonia man, in his forties, was riding on the Gembrook-Launching Place Road around 11am when he lost control on a sweeping left-hand bend.
He was travelling with a group of riders towards Gembrook.
He was the third person to die in the space of two hours on Yarra Ranges roads on Saturday 15 February.
A 12-year-old girl and a man in his mid-thirties were killed in a collision between a truck and a four-wheel-drive at Steels Creek just before 9am.
Police said the truck was travelling along Mount Slide Road towards the Melba Highway when it apparently crossed onto the wrong side of the road hitting the 4WD, killing the male driver and the girl who was a passenger at the back.
Two other passengers, a boy, 8, and another 12-year-old girl, were uninjured but were taken to Maroondah Hospital for observation.
The truck driver, 45, is assisting detectives from the Major Collision Investigation Unit.
The deaths bring Victoria’s road toll to 38, three more than at the same time last year.
Police are asking for any witnesses, to either crash, to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
