A heartbroken mother is demanding urgent action on a treacherous Melbourne mountain road nearly seven years after her son was killed in a horror crash.
Moira Oates insists a simple fix could prevent another family from enduring her nightmare.
Her youngest son Michael, 28, died in 2018 doing what he loved most: riding his motorbike along the winding Mountain Highway towards Sassafras in Victoria’s Dandenong Ranges.
But the devoted mum says the deadly hazard – loose stones washed onto the bitumen from an unsealed side track – remains untouched, despite pleas to authorities.
‘It tells me they don’t care about my son’s death, and they don’t care about the risk to anyone else,’ she told Daily Mail.
Ms Oates isn’t asking for compensation, infrastructure overhauls, or political battles.
She wants a sealed track, 10m long.
‘I would love to see the track sealed and for it to save some lives,’ she said.
Michael Oates had been proud of his skills on a motorbike, but came to grief when he hit stones on a blind bend
For Moira, the fight is no longer about Michael – it’s about saving the next rider.
It’s about the next rider coming around that same bend, unaware of the stones waiting patiently for another rider to pass.
Michael, the youngest of three siblings, had been diagnosed with ADHD in grade two and later battled depression and anxiety for about eight years.
These conditions made stable employment difficult, but his family said he was an exceptionally hard worker when able.
His last job was at Tilley Soaps in Bayswater, where he progressed from packing soap to mixing ingredients.
But motorbikes remained Michael’s first love.
When he was just two years old, he squeezed through the back gate, climbed onto his father’s motorbike and sat there making engine noises.
By six, he had his own PeeWee 50, tearing around the backyard.
Stones had spilled out onto this blind bend when Michael Oates rode over them and into disaster
Michael Oates corrected his bike after hitting the stones, but was hit head on before he could clear the wrong lane
Tragically, when Michael was 10, his father was killed in a motorbike accident.
Michael often spoke about wishing he could show his dad how skilled he’d become as a motorcyclist.
He was also deeply family-oriented.
Two years before he died, he became an uncle to little Olivia, who brought light into his darkest days.
‘When he was struggling, I’d bring Olivia over to see “Uncle Mickey”, and it always put a smile on his face,’ Ms Oates said.
On the day of the accident, Michael had gone to VicRoads to pay his motorbike registration – four days early and unusually punctual for him.
On his way home, he likely decided to ride up Mountain Highway – a regular route he was more than familiar with.
At the blind Hilton Track intersection, recent storms had washed loose stones from the unsealed track directly onto the bitumen.
Michael Oates had been a capable rider when he died on the road
Michael Oates had a deep connection with his family. His loss is felt seven years on as if it only happened yesterday
According to Senior Constable Scott Lardner, who attended the scene, Michael hit the stones while riding downhill.
His front wheel lost traction and while he managed to briefly regain control, he crossed onto the wrong side of the road where he was struck by an oncoming vehicle.
The driver of the other vehicle, Kerryn, did nothing wrong.
In fact, she held Michael’s hand as he lay injured, comforting him in his final moments.
‘She showed him love at a time when he was more scared than he had ever been,’ his mother said.
At Michael’s request, Kerryn called his sister Sarah – forming a bond with the family that has lasted ever since.
Lawyers from Arnold Thomas & Becker, the firm representing the family, said the continuing failure to address the dangerous section of road raised serious questions about public safety.
‘Where a clear preventable risk has been identified, the expectation is simple: fix it before someone else dies,’ senior associate Louisa Atanasovski said.
‘Seven years is an unacceptable delay for a safety measure as straightforward as sealing a short section of track.’