A 21-year-old was killed last night after he came off his motorcycle in West Wodonga.
Wodonga police Sgt Tony Chamberlain said the accident happened about 9.45pm when the man on a Suzuki motorcycle was heading north on a sweeping bend on Emerald Avenue, lost control and crashed outside the Wodonga Middle Years College.
The victim, believed to be from Wodonga, died at the scene.
The guttural sound of sobbing and cries of “oh no” could be heard as friends of the young man arrived in the darkness.
The busted bike, in a cordon of police tape, was lit by street lights and the lights of the emergency services.
Officers had to hold back a grieving youth who tried to cross the police tape before he collapsed on the footpath sobbing.
Mothers arrived. One asked if a girl had been involved because she didn’t know where her daughter was.
Another mother stopped on her way home.
“I’m just checking to see it wasn’t one of my boys,” she said.
None of her boys owned a motorcycle though and she breathed a sigh of relief, but stopped herself, thinking of the family that would be affected.
“I’m sad for whoever it is,” she said.
Two young women stood stoned-faced on the corner of Skitch Street and Emerald Avenue.
“We knew him,” one said before turning away.
An older woman, standing nearby with two teenage boys, said simply: “Wodonga’s a small place”.
A stream of passers-by continued into the night while police assessed the scene.