Claire Coulter opens up about losing boyfriend in West Gate crash
YOUNG couple Claire Coulter and Christopher Boyden had a bright future. They had talked of marriage and having children. But all of that was shattered in a second.
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DON’T rush. Take your time. It’s better to be late and still get to see your family than not.
Those are the words of grief-stricken Claire Coulter, now facing a life without the “perfect” man who had made her laugh for the past two years, Christopher Boyden.
The young couple had a bright future.
They had talked of marriage, having children — and even had the trip of a lifetime to Europe booked for July.
But all of that was shattered in a second.
Chris was killed when he lost control of his motorcycle and collided with a truck as he was riding to work inbound on the West Gate Bridge on November 28. He was just 25.
“We had so many plans — now all I have is memories,” Ms Coulter, 21, said. “He was really funny. He’d always try to make me laugh and smile.”
Chris, an experienced rider who had held his motorbike licence for six years, is one of 52 riders who have been killed in a horror year for motorbike accidents on Victoria’s roads.
Never have motorcyclists made up such a large proportion of the state’s road toll.
Ms Coulter said it was heartbreaking to know 51 other families were going through the same pain.
“It is hard to believe he is gone,” she said. “I think of that morning. It was like any other morning we would say goodbye. He got on his motorbike and we said ‘I love you’ and then he rode off.”
But she knew something was wrong when she never got her usual message from him telling her he’d made it to work and wishing her a nice day.
Chris had still lived at home with his parents, David and Jenny, and younger brother, Jeremy, in Ferntree Gully.
The RMIT surveying student stayed the night at Ms Coulter’s home in Williamstown and was riding to work in Notting Hill when the collision happened near the Todd Rd exit just before 8am. Traffic was crawling at just 7kmh.
“Police are still investigating, but it seems it was just a complete accident,” Ms Coulter said.
Chris’s father had ridden motorbikes for more than three decades and sold his pride and joy the day after his son’s accident. Chris’s friends who have motorbikes also fear getting back on them, not wanting to face the same fate.
Ms Coulter urged other motorists and riders to not wait to lose a loved one before changing your driving habits. “It is sad, but the reality is it takes someone to know someone who has become a road fatality before it hits home,” she said.
“There is no bringing Chris back. But if my story can make just one person think twice when behind the wheel or on a bike about their actions then it could save a life.”