Kiara Vest didn't start riding motorbikes from a young age, but after booking a learners course and getting on a motorbike for the first time, she was hooked.
Kiara moved from Townsville to Brisbane in 2020, which was when she really connected with the motorcycling community.
But it all came to a screeching halt later that year when she was in a motorbike crash on Mount Glorious, north-west of Brisbane, which left her with serious injuries.
She collided with a cement block which sent her careening through a barbed wire fence and into a post, and her bike slid off the road and into a river.
"I thought I was really cool, going through all these corners really fast," she says.
"I ended up fracturing my skull and pretty much my entire body had injuries.
"I had a moon boot, a knee brace, a sling, a head injury, everything. It took a really long time to recover from that."
Kiara says if she'd had a similar crash on a track, she likely would have been able to walk away with far fewer injuries.
So despite the nerves that came with getting back on the bike, that's exactly what she did — and says she's "never looked back since".
"It's so much safer than on the road," she says.
Kiara now races competitively and rides every week.
She's had her fair share of crashes on the track — some more painful than others — but she says having the appropriate safety gear, knowledgeable people around her and an ambulance always close by means it's far safer.
She says all motorbike lovers should test out the track, where riders can really see what their bike can do in a safer environment than out on public roads.
"If you haven't given it a go, you don't know what you're missing out on," she says.
"You have all of these steps in place to be able to go out to the track and push the limits, and not worry about destroying everything.
"It's really heartbreaking watching people having these huge accidents, they could have avoided that if they'd come out to the track."
Queensland has the country's most motorbike fatalities
Less than three months into the year, Queensland police say 17 motorcyclists have died on the state's roads.
Queensland has recorded more than double the number of motorbike-related road deaths than any other state or territory in Australia so far in 2023.
Data from the Federal Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Resource Economics shows Queensland had the most motorcyclist fatalities in 2022 and 2021.
Those figures show Queensland recorded 74 motorbike deaths in 2022 — Victoria was the next-highest with 56.
Senior crash investigator Acting Sergeant Michael Tompkins from the Queensland Police Forensic Crash Unit says motorcycle-related road fatalities have been "way up" since around 2019.
Acting Sergeant Tompkins says riding dangerously and taking risks are consistent themes investigators come across when determining the cause of serious motorbike crashes.
"Dangerous riding and inappropriate speed for the situation that they're in finds [riders] getting into trouble really quickly," he says.
"Men make up 97 to 98 per cent of the riders that are involved in crashes.
"The majority of 26- to 35-year-old riders that end up in fatal and serious injury crashes are potentially the rider who is at fault in the crash, and that seems to decline as the rider gets older."
Acting Sergeant Tompkins says while riders need to take responsibility for their own safety, other road users need to be alert and aware of motorcyclists as well.
He encouraged riders and drivers to brush up on skills and road rules — including laws around edge filtering and lane filtering — to save lives.
"Hearing that call for an urgent response to a motorcyclist crash, already you're thinking they're a vulnerable road user with a very high likelihood that the rider's going to be seriously injured," Acting Sergeant Tompkins says.
"Once you get to the scene, it's really confronting, the screams of the rider when they're in pain."
Professor Narelle Haworth from QUT's Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety Queensland — or CARRS-Q — says the number of non-fatal motorbike crashes in Queensland is even higher, but official reporting of that data takes longer than data on deaths.
Professor Haworth says an increase in motorcycle riding, reduced police enforcement capacity and Queensland's growing population are some aspects that could help to explain the state's growing number of motorbike deaths.
