Wire ropes, bad roads protest planned

The daughter of a motorcyclist killed in a crash on the Calder Highway last year is helping organise a ‘bad roads rally’ against the state government, believing wire rope barriers are a risk to motorists.

Phil ‘Whitey’ White, a member of the God’s Squad Motorcycle Club’s central Victorian chapter, died after coming off his vehicle following a collision with a kangaroo near Taradale in November.

Danielle Allport believes the new safety barriers currently being installed across Victoria may have contributed to her father’s death.

“It was those posts from those wire rope barriers that took him from us,” she said.

Deputy State Coroner Iain Treloar in February found Mr White’s cause of death was multiple injuries sustained in a motorcycle incident.

Detailing the November 5 incident, Coroner Treloar said: “Paramedic (named removed) was also riding along the road and observed Mr White overtake her on her right and overtook another car in the right hand lane as well. A few seconds later, he hit the kangaroo and was projected up into the air, landing in the Wire Rope Safety Barriers on the western side of the south bound lanes. (The paramedic) immediately rushed to his aid but he was unresponsive and suffered various injuries due to the impact.”

No recommendations were made by Coroner Treloar. 

Ms Allport is organising the Bendigo leg of a statewide ‘bad roads protest rally’, during which groups from around Victoria will converge on the steps of Parliament House on Tuesday at 12.30pm to rally against the new safety measures, and the poor state of some Victorian roads.

The protesters argue that money spent on the roll out of wire ropes has resulted in the neglect of country roads. They will gather at Lansell Square car park in Kangaroo Flat on Tuesday at 8am before heading to Melbourne.

Roads minister Luke Donnellan said: “Any death on our roads is a tragedy and my thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of the person involved in this crash.”