A NORTH East man is dead after his motorcycle crashed 25 metres down a cliff near Falls Creek yesterday.
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Falls Creek resort staff clambered down the cliff face and tried to save the 52-year-old from Goorambat, near Benalla, by giving him CPR.
It was the second fatality in the North East within 24 hours.
A Glenrowan woman, 21, was killed only 10 kilometres from her home on Tuesday evening.
Her family, in a car 10 minutes behind her, were first on the scene.
The deaths have prompted police to urge people to drive with greater care.
“These things don’t happen for no reason,” Benalla police highway patrol Sgt Darren Wittingslow said.
“Treat roads with the respect they deserve.”
Police are investigating whether speed contributed to the Falls Creek crash.
Leading Sen-Constable Jason Frede, of Mount Beauty, said the motorcyclist had failed to negotiate a sweeping left-hand bend on a Suzuki GSXR sports bike at 11am.
He was about two kilometres from the resort on the Bogong High Plains Road when he crashed down a 25-metre embankment and hit a tree.
Sen-Constable Frede said a Lavington couple driving to the resort had seen the crash.
“They saw a cloud of dust, a flash of blue and thought ‘What was that?’,” Sen-Constable Frede said.
The couple flagged down passing resort staff moments later.
Resort operations manager Scott Mann clambered down to the motorcyclist, while a staff member, Mark Lucey, called triple-0.
“He obviously was not in a really good state,” Mr Mann said.”
He gave the rider CPR until paramedics arrived.
Sen-Constable Frede said it was lucky the Lavington couple had seen the crash.
“He could have been down there a long time,” Sen-Constable Frede said.
Wangaratta highway patrol, Mount Beauty and Falls Creek SES and the CFA attended.
Benalla police said they were keeping an “open mind” as they tried to determine why the Glenrowan woman had driven off the road only 10 kilometres from her home.
Sgt Wittingslow said the woman, who worked at a Benalla business, was driving to Benalla from her Glenrowan West home about 5.30pm.
He said her Toyota Corolla had veered off the Eleven Mile Creek Road into a dry creek bed and crashed into a large log.
Sgt Wittingslow said the woman’s family, travelling 10 minutes behind her, discovered the crash.
The woman was taken to Wangaratta Base Hospital where she died several hours later.
Sgt Wittingslow said police would examine her car, her possessions and speak to her friends and relatives to “see if we can piece anything together”.
“With some of these ones, you just don’t know,” he said.
He said drivers should never become complacent, even if they were on a road they travelled regularly.
“It can happen at any time,” he said.