From a distance, the motorcycle does not have the look of a wrecked vehicle, pulled to the police yard from a late-night crash that killed a young motorcycle rider late on Christmas night.
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Up close the damage is evident enough, but hardly begins to tell the story of a tragic road death which has undoubtedly left a family's holiday celebrations in tatters.
The rider, a 22-year-old man from Turner still on his learner licence, was thrown from the bike about 11pm on Wednesday night as he attempted to turn left from Northbourne Avenue into Mouat Street in Lyneham.
The bike hit a traffic island next to a traffic light pole. Witnesses called triple-0 and paramedics stabilised the man at the scene, but he died a short time later in Canberra Hospital.
A police investigation has begun into the incident, which was the seventh death on the ACT's roads in 2013, and the second motorcycle-related fatality after a female pillion rider was killed in a crash in March.
Police Superintendent Brett Kidner said the learner rider was wearing appropriate safety gear, but said police would look into a number of possible factors, and have called for witnesses with any information regarding the man's activities and riding leading up to the crash.
''Part of the investigation will determine what the actual cause of the accident was. It will look into the factors such as what the male did during the day to see if fatigue or any other contributing factors altered his ability to ride that motorbike.''
About one in four of the 69 road deaths in the ACT over the past 10 years (not including Wednesday's crash) have been motorcycle-related, says data from the Federal Department of Infrastructure.
The statistic is significantly higher than the national figure over the same period, during which time motorcycle-related deaths accounted for about 15 per cent of the total.
Motorcycle Riders Association ACT president Steve Robson said work was constantly being done to make motorcyclists more aware of the risks of riding, but the dangers could never be completely mitigated. ''People need to manage risk. If they're riding at night, they need to understand that there's a greater incidence of risk in people seeing them or not seeing them,'' Mr Robson said.
Superintendent Kidner said police had spoken to the family of the man who died on Wednesday; however, his name had not been publicly released. Flowers had been left at the crash site by early Thursday evening.
Anyone with further information regarding the crash should contact police via Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.