A MOTORCYCLE rider has been seriously injured after crashing his bike at high speed on the Hume Highway in one of several weekend accidents.
Police believe the 62-year-old Melbourne man’s safety gear protected him from more serious injuries as he slid about 60 metres along the road.
He had been travelling south near Chiltern with two other riders about 8am.
A car in front of the group swerved to avoid a dead kangaroo on the road but the man was unable to swerve in time.
His bike struck the kangaroo and he fell off a slid, and his bike travelled about 130 metres.
He was treated by paramedics at the scene before being taken to Albury Hospital with serious injuries.
Leading Senior Constable Brian Tyler said the man would have been travelling at close to 110km/h when he struck the animal.
“He wouldn’t have had time to swerve,” he said.
“He was doing everything right and it shows why you have to be alert while riding a motorbike.
“The protective equipment has definitely saved him from more serious injuries.”
Leading Senior Constable Tyler said truck drivers often hit kangaroos and left the carcasses on the road.
It was difficult to stop and move the dead animals off the highway, especially at night, he said.
The crash was one of at least four accidents in the region on Sunday, with a utility badly damaged in Wodonga, a four-wheel-drive rollover at Yackandandah and another motorbike crash in Bogong.
Leading Senior Constable Tyler said the Wodonga crash had been caused by inattention.
An 18-year-old Yackandandah man crashed into a car turning right from Parkers Road in Niblick Street about 11.30am, which in turn struck a car in front of it.
All three cars were damaged, and the 18-year-old’s utility was written off.
He will be issued a penalty notice for failing to keep a sufficient distance between vehicles.
“People need to be 100 per cent concentrating when they’re on the road,” Leading Senior Constable Tyler said.
“There is no place for lapses in concentration or inattention, because things like this happen.
‘We’re lucky today that there are no serious injuries and everyone gets to go home.”