Two people killed in road accidents in horror start to 2025
Two people have died on New Year’s Day in separate crashes on Victorian roads, the same day Victoria Police made a public pledge to drive down road trauma in 2025.
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Two people have died on New Year’s Day in separate crashes on Victorian roads, the same day Victoria Police made a public pledge to drive down road trauma in 2025.
A rider lost control of a motorbike and crashed on Westernport Rd in Ripplebrook at 11:50am on Wednesday.
The 68-year-old Longwarry man was treated by paramedics but died at the scene.
Later in the day, a car crashed into a parked truck and caught fire in Werribee South.
Emergency services arrived at the incident on Digger’s Road at 2pm on Wednesday and extinguished the blaze, but the driver was declared dead at the scene.
The driver has not yet been identified by police.
The incidents occurred on the same day Victoria Police issued a public statement committing to drive down the road toll in 2025, following a report that a total of 282 lives had been lost on the state’s roads in 2024.
The figure is just 13 fewer than the same time in 2023, which was the highest total in 15 years.
Although the number of lives lost in 2024 was fewer compared to 2023, there was an overall increase in the number of fatal collisions.
Police said that “single acts of noncompliance” or people making basic driving errors contributed to more than half of fatalities in 2024.
Low-range speeding, lower-level drink driving, failing to obey road signs and distraction, like using a mobile phone while driving, were identified as some of the key causes of crashes.
“In 2025, we will continue to work with our road safety partners to drive down road trauma. The focus for police will be maintaining high visibility across the state’s roads to deter and detect offending,” Road Policing Assistant Commissioner Glenn Weir said in a statement released on New Year’s Day.
“It’s up to all of us to ensure road safety remains paramount in the year ahead – we don’t want 2025 to be a year remembered for all the wrong reasons.”
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