By ANEEKA SIMONIS
AN ELDERLY woman walking through a shopping centre car park in Pakenham was recently hospitalised after colliding with a bike.
The incident came five days after the tragic Carrum Downs fatality involving 34-year-old mum Andrea Lehane who did not recover from severe injuries sustained by a monkey bike collision in a shopping centre car park.
A spokesperson from Ambulance Victoria said the woman, believed to be aged in her 60s, was walking in the Lakeside Shopping Centre carpark after 5pm on Monday 28 September when she was in collision with a bicycle.
Witnesses said the woman was knocked to the ground as a result of the crash.
She was transferred to Dandenong Hospital with facial bruising and swelling.
Dangerous riders are a known problem in the Pakenham area, with menacing riders inspiring a recent local campaign by a 13-year-old Pakenham boy who had also been targeted by riders.
Berwick Grammar student Kurt Caddy said he regularly witnessed people riding their monkey bikes, dirt bikes and trail bikes recklessly, particularly near his house in the Toomuc River area.
“I’ve almost been hit by trail bikes and after the incident at Carrum Downs I got quite agitated by the whole situation,” he said detailing a recent intimidating incident where he was circled by two men on bikes approximately 10 years older than him.
He has issued flyers about the bikes around the local community, urging anyone who sees bike riders behaving dangerously to contact police.
Pakenham police Senior Sergeant Graeme Stanley said strict road laws still apply to bike riders who need to consider the consequences of dangerous behaviour.
“People on pushbikes are still subjected to similar laws around safety and speed through places like car parks and pedestrian walking areas,” he said.
He said police liaise strongly with Lakeside Shopping Centre, Arena Shopping Centre and Pakenham Market Place management departments about security to provide a safe environmental for the community.
“We want to provide a united approach to ensure people can go about their shopping in a safe environment,” Sen Sgt Stanley said.
Ms Lehane, a mother-of-two, died after she was struck by one of five motorcycles as she walked across a pedestrian crossing of the Carrum Downs Regional Shopping Centre car park about 5.10pm on Wednesday 23 September.
She sustained “unsurvivable brain damage“ as a result of the hit-and-run crash.
