This week a thirty-four year old mother of two children was shopping at a Melbourne shopping centre. She was walking on a pedestrian crossing when several youths riding what are known as "Monkey bikes " began racing each other with total disregard for the safety of shoppers. One of these ran her down, and despite being taken to hospital it was soon apparent that she had received irreversible brain injuries. Her husband and two young children stood at her bedside as the life support machines were turned off.
This young mother was a nurse and she had a firm belief in the need for organ donor gifts to replace and save the lives of those suffering organ failures. Her family honoured that wish and her death will enable a host of complete strangers to enjoy recovery from a crippled lifestyle - and in some cases - reprieve from certain death.
The police have arrested one of the riders who absconded from the scene and are closing in on others, but this death raises the question of why these Monkey bikes are able to be imported and sold in Australia when they can not be legally registered for road use or serve any other useful purpose.
Monkey bikes are miniature motorbikes with very powerfull engines and they are capable of high speeds.According to the law in all Australian states and territories they are only able to be legally ridden on private land, but so far there has been no interest from farmers to apply them to cattle or sheep roundups - and they are regarded as " toys " !
The vast majority of these machines are advertised and on sale within Australian cities. It is remotely possible that some buyers may have a grandparent or friend who owns a country farm and will allow them to be ridden where it is legal to do so, but the majority of sales are to city folk who are likely to either ride them on fire trails or public land - or in the majority of cases - illegally in shopping centres or public streets.
The quality of these toys ranges with the prices asked, but they are well within what many parents spend for a birthday gift or Christmas present for teenage children - and they are often high on the list of items teenagers urge their parents to buy. It seems incredible that so many make this purchase knowing that the bikes will be used illegally on public streets and that their riders will be in danger of becoming a road statistic when they collide with other traffic.
In this case, the rider of that Monkey bike has committed a crime which has taken the life of a young mother - and court action will follow. If the rider was under eighteen, the case will be heard in a juvenile court and such courts hand down unbelievably light penalties. The same offence committed by a person who has crossed over that eighteen age barrier would probably serve a term of incarceration.
The families who buy Monkey bikes as gifts for irresponsible teenagers are equally guilty because they know that their gift will never be used in a legal manner. They simply don't care that it will be used on a public street or in a shopping centre with total disregard for the safety of the rider - or any other unfortunates who may come into contact with it's wild ride.
It also raises the question as to why these bikes are not an illegal import ? It seems strange that a piece of machinery that is destined for illegal use can be openly advertised and displayed in shops - and allowed into the country in the full knowledge that it will pass into the hands of people who will use it to breach the law.
This untimely death simply illustrates the absurdity of what passes for import restrictions in Australia.
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