By JESSE GRAHAM AND VICTORIA STONE-MEADOWS
A CAR flipped, another destroyed, and a motorbike rider slid off the road in the Healesville area last week.
Shortly after 3am on Sunday 8 May, a 22-year-old Healesville man was travelling towards town on the Healesville-Kooweerup Road, when he lost control of the car.
Leading Senior Constable Cliff Argus said the car then lost the road, hitting a guard-rail before hitting an embankment beside the road and flipping into the Worawa Aboriginal College grounds near Barak Lane – some 20 metres away.
Amazingly, the driver walked away uninjured from the crash – the front-end of the car was destroyed in the crash.
At 10.30am on Tuesday 10 May, two American tourists crashed their car near the Black Spur on the Maroondah Highway, after losing control of their car and hitting an embankment on an infamous stretch of the road.
The car flipped onto its roof, and the 31-year-old driver was uninjured, while the 65-year-old passenger was taken to Maroondah Hospital as a precaution.
Sergeant Stewart Thomson said that drivers, particularly those unfamiliar with the road, needed to drive to conditions.
“The road is off-camber, it’s very slippery when wet, and before people even realise they are in trouble, it’s too late,” he said.
The third crash occurred at 10.50am on Thursday 12 May, when a 29-year-old Seaholme man was riding his motorbike towards Healesville on Don Road, when he slid off the road on a wet corner and went down an embankment.
The man was treated by paramedics, but was trapped down the embankment for over an hour, before he and his bike were winched back up to the road.
Leading Senior Constable Chris Hickey said the man suffered an “extremely badly broken leg” – a compound fracture in his left leg.
The rider was taken to Maroondah Hospital by ambulance.
While Leading Sen Const Hickey said the rider was not at fault, he urged drivers to travel according to their conditions with the recent wet weather.
“Drive to the conditions – people just don’t do it,” he said.
