Anybody would feel sad for Alastair Mackenzie. His father, Norman, was hit by a cyclist at a pedestrian crossing in St Kilda last week, and later died in hospital from serious head injuries.

Norman Mackenzie was 85. He was out walking his blue heeler pup when he was killed, trying to teach it some road sense according to his son.

At 85, Norman Mackenzie had lived a long life and was obviously still active; his family must have expected him to live on and eventually die of what kills most of us – old age. His death, like anybody's death, is sad, and its manner, so unexpected, is a tragedy.

In the 10 years to 2015, 444 pedestrians were killed on Victoria's roads according to the TAC. Curiously, one-third of them were aged over 70, and 65 per cent were men. One-third were struck on the near side while crossing the road, 16 per cent on the far side, and 11 per cent were hit while playing, working, standing or lying on a carriageway. In a tragic incident that received a lot of media attention, a pedestrian was killed by a bicycle in 2006 – 77-year-old James Gould on Beach Road – and VicRoads data indicates that there was another fatality involving a pedestrian and a cyclist in North Melbourne in 2013.