Alexandra Falls
POTENTIALLY lethal traps have been strung across the motorcycle tracks on Whittlesea’s Mount Robertson.
The Kinglake police have reported that thin wires have been tied from tree to tree across public trails on Mount Robertson.
The wires are strung at head height, where they risk seriously injuring, even possibly decapitating, fast-travelling motorcyclists as well as the horse riders who use the trails.
Two wires have already been found at Mount Robertson, the first discovered by contact with a four wheel drive using the trails.
Fortunately no damage was caused to the car and so far no one has been harmed as a result as of the wire traps.
Sergeant Joanne Jamieson of the Kinglake police is urging anyone with any information to contact crimestoppers or the police.
President of the Whittlesea Township Motorcycle Club, Aarron Johnson, said that the people who put up the wires need to ‘take a good hard look at themselves.’
“If you hit a wire, be it in the head or the chest, it will throw you from your bike and you can break every bone in your body. Or you can be doing 60km, hit a tree and be killed,” Mr Johnson said.
Mr Johnson also said that it was definitely possible that a person travelling fast enough and at the right angle could be decapitated by such a trap.
“When you ride the only part of you that is exposed is your neck,” he said.
Mr Johnson has warned the hundreds of members of the Whittlesea Township Motorcycle Club, who frequently ride at Mount Robertson, via the club's website.
He also said that unfortunately, it is very difficult to take precautions against booby traps such as thin wires, which are almost impossible to see even at low speeds.
“It’s a fairly disgraceful act,” he said.
Mr Johnson has heard of such tactics being used before by people who think ‘they’re doing the right thing,’ and has a friend who collided with a booby trap wire and broke both arms.
He said such wires are usually put in place to deter motorcyclists from illegally using single trails or intruding on private property.
Unusually, the traps being found on Mount Robertson are on commonly used public trails, legally available to both bike and horse riders.
Sgt Jamieson said that the general consensus at the police station is that the person or persons stringing the wires are irritated by the loud noises that motorcycles make using the trails.
She warns that the maximum penalty for the offence of setting mantraps is five years' imprisonment.
In the meantime, Sgt Jamieson urges motorcyclists to be extremely careful when travelling along the trails at Mount Robertson.
