A HUSBAND watched helplessly as he wife was killed and a Burrawang family continued their bedside vigil for their critically injured father following a horrific motorcycle accident east of Robertson on Sunday morning.
Alan "Herb" Handley, 52, is in an induced comma in a critical but stable condition at Liverpool Hospital after suffering serious head and facial injuries.
A 53-year-old Canberra woman died at the scene after both riders came off their motorbikes when they collided as the woman was crossing a bridge 500 metres west of a railway line intersection on the Illawarra Highway at 11.30am.
The Bonython woman's husband was in a group of three or four riders that were riding with the woman in the eastbound lane when the accident occurred.
Police said the woman was trying to negotiate a sharp left hand bend when her Kawasaki ZR7 750, with a sidecar, crossed onto the wrong side of the road and ran into Mr Handley's Suzuki GSF 1200 heading west.
Mr Handley was airlifted to Liverpool Hospital an hour later. The highway was closed for five hours while Bowral and Lake Illawarra police investigated the crash. A report is being prepared for the Coroner and Bowral police impounded the woman's motorbike.
The father of three who runs Handley's Upholstery in Bowral had only just taken possession of his motorbike two days before the accident and is believed to have been taking it out for one of his first rides.
Mark Bisby, who has worked for Mr Handley for seven years, said family and friends were hoping for the best.
"He is a good family man, who loves his family. It shouldn't have happened to him," Mr Bisby said.
"He is a good hard working bloke and a great boss.
"I've have known for him most of my life, he is like a second dad to me."
Mr Handley grew up in Mittagong and is the eldest of three brothers.
David Handley said the family was taking it day by day and his older brother was doing better on Monday than he had been on Sunday. He said Alan was an experienced rider.
The Highlands crash was one of three fatal motorcycle accidents across the state over the weekend.
A 46-year-old man died after he lost control of his motorbike on the North Coast 40 minutes after the Highlands collision on Sunday. On Saturday, a 35-year-old man died when he and a four-wheel-drive collided head-on in the Snowy Mountains.
A Sanctuary Point man died after he hit a partially submerged tree while water skiing on Wandandian Creek, Bewong, south of Nowra, on Saturday.
Rod Macleod, 56, was taken to Shoalhaven Hospital unconscious and was pronounced dead on arrival.
Meanwhile, a 48-year-old man lay stranded for several hours after coming off his motorcycle at Bundanoon on Monday night.
The Mittagong man was leaving a property on Ellsmore Road near Ashgrove Place when he lost control on a steep gravel driveway and went down an embankment.
The man was not discovered until the property owner returned from an ACDC concert in Sydney at 1.30am.
The Bundanoon NSW Fire Brigade were first on the scene at 1.50am followed shortly by Bowral paramedics. The Ambulance Service said the man had been there for around two hours when they arrived.
The man showed signs of spinal injury and injured his shoulder. He was airlifted to Royal North Shore Hospital from Bundanoon Oval at 3.55am.
The Bundanoon NSW Fire Brigade have been the first responders for the area since August last year and Acting Captain Leon Shanks said it had increased the brigade's work load from two to three calls a month to around 30.
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