00:03Motorcyclists in mourning.
00:05Although he looked a bit scary,
00:07you wouldn't have met a more articulate, community-minded bloke.
00:12Veteran motorcyclist Peter Mason, or Tiki to his mates,
00:16was killed after he struck a pothole while riding on the Western Highway.
00:20A bloke with years and years of motorcycling experience,
00:24but unfortunately that didn't do him any good.
00:26As Victoria Police continues its investigation,
00:29those who knew him are venting their frustration
00:32over what they say was a predictable and preventable tragedy.
00:36Because the state of the roads in the state of Victoria are a bloody disgrace.
00:41The Western Highway is a major arterial, plagued with potholes.
00:46This month's Auditor-General's report on state roads
00:49found 44% of a stretch of the Western Highway near the crash
00:53was in poor or very poor condition.
00:56For the whole road out to the border, it's even worse.
01:01It's a problem keeping Beaufort mechanic Chris Johnston busy.
01:05He's dealing with blown-out tyres daily.
01:09I think we had probably 13 or 18 or something like that.
01:15Yeah, I lost count of them towards the end.
01:18If I was generous, I'd give it a 3 or 4 out of 10.
01:20It's absolutely a minefield out there.
01:22For years, community groups have been lobbying
01:24state and federal governments for urgent repairs.
01:27For them, it's not just a lack of maintenance
01:30leading to poor road conditions,
01:31but the quality of repairs that just simply don't last the distance.
01:36At the moment, literally it's a bag of asphalt
01:39going into a pothole that's not lasting.
01:41We can't continue to just throw a little bit of tar in a hole
01:44and say it's fixed.
01:45OK, OK, never mind.
01:46DEALLY
01:50You
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