Everyone knew water was leaking on this road. But no one did a thing until someone died

When Bikram Dangol’s daughter asks where he is, her family point to the sky. Her dad is the brightest star, the young girl is told.

But her mother, Bina Rajthala, still struggles with her husband’s death in a motorcycle crash eight years ago, when their child was just a few months old.

In April, coroner Kate Despot finally released her finding into the death: authorities had “missed opportunities” to fix a water leak that might have mitigated the risk of a crash.

Six different organisations knew about the problem, some for months, but the coroner found “nothing constructive occurred until after the fatal collision” on the busy M80 off-ramp at Laverton North on July 26, 2018.

Despot questioned whether the hazard would ever have been fixed had the crash not happened, noting the “absurdity of the situation in which this issue was ‘handballed’ between various companies and entities”.

“Even after the collision occurred, there were arguments between [Greater Western Water] and other entities about the ownership of the water assets in question,” she wrote.

“I note that the issue was rectified the same day as the collision, so it is evident that it was not a particular[ly] onerous or complex task.”

Rajthala says: “If steps had been taken on time … things would have been different, and he might be here with me.”

Bikram Dangol was born in Nepal and moved to Melbourne in 2007 for university. He settled in Williams Landing after meeting his wife.

“Bikram was full of life,” Rajthala says. “He was adventurous … caring. He was a family person.”

Dangol worked as a welder in Campbellfield. The 30-year-old was riding home from a shift just after midnight when he reached the end of the Western Ring Road and joined the M1 on-ramp towards Geelong.

According to the coroner’s finding, on that bend two months before, Mark Kelly noticed the ground was soaking wet.

Winslow Construction’s safety co-ordinator had just started work on Dohertys Road nearby and figured a main was leaking, so he called Greater Western Water (then City West Water) on May 10.

Eventually, a worker turned up but concluded on June 7 the leak was not coming from a water authority asset. The water authority employee contacted VicRoads about the issue, but couldn’t find the right person to speak with.