Around 300 police officers on motorbikes passed through the region on Saturday on their ninth annual Wall to Wall Remembrance Ride.
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The Victorian contingent was on its way to join a 1000-strong group from NSW of current serving and retired officers, police department employees, emergency service workers, and family, friends and supporters of police in a visit to the National Police Memorial in Canberra.
The group riding out of Melbourne had spent Friday night in Merimbula and breakfasted at the boat ramp thanks to the local Lions Club.
They left just after 8am, passing over the Bega Bridge en masse at 8.40am heading for Batemans Bay then Canberra.
The ride is held each year in honour of police officers who have lost their lives in the line of duty.
Tragically, this year a Victorian officer was killed during the ride when a car veered on to the wrong side of the road at Orbost and struck a policeman’s bike.
Detective Senior Sergeant Vic Kostiuk died at the scene. His son, Detective Felix Kostiuk, was riding beside him at the time.
Detective Senior Sergeant Kostiuk's immediate family asked for privacy.
But his broader family in the Victoria Police have publicly remembered him as a leader in the fight against domestic violence who had much more to give.
Acting Chief Commissioner Shane Patton said Detective Senior Sergeant Kostiuk had been "chuffed" to be given a role at the head of the Somerville Family Violence Unit just a few months ago.
"He's been a detective on-and-off throughout his career but it was a very big thing for him to again get to the rank of detective and have that in front of his senior sergeant rank," Acting Chief Commissioner Patton said on Saturday.
A 21-year-old Botanic Ridge man is in custody charged with one count of culpable driving, police said. He was scheduled to face Latrobe Valley Magistrates Court on Monday, September 17.