FAMILIES TOP BLOKES LOST AS FNQ ON ROAD TO TRAGEDY BOUND BY GRIEF
Death of well-known rider shocks motorcycle community as weekend of tragedy claims four, including teen and outdoors-loving apprentice
FAR Northern roads have robbed four families of sons and husbands and bound them in mourning after a shocking chain of vehicle accidents over the weekend.
Two of the victims — Tyler Pashen, 21, and business owner Greg Martin, 62 — have been identified.
Mr Pashen, an outdoors loving “quiet achiever”, touched his co-workers with his good humour.
“RIP mate sad to see a good kind-hearted kid gone; there wasn’t a bad day at work while you were there ...” one tribute to the apprentice diesel fitter, posted on social media, read.
Meanwhile the Cairns motorcycle community is contemplating life without Greg Martin, whose small moto philosophy won a following among scooter and Royal Enfield enthusiasts.
“Life is going to be sad without him,” friendly competitor and business rival Wayne Leonard said.
AN ICON and gentleman, and the quiet achiever.
Grandfather Greg Martin and apprentice Tyler Pashen were both killed in unrelated crashes at the weekend, victims of a horror weekend on Far Northern roads.
Their loss, and that of two as yet unidentified males, have bound four families in grief.
Tributes have flowed for Mr Martin, 62, as news of his death filtered through the close-knit ranks of motorcycle riders in the Cairns region – a community that shared the joys and dangers of road and adventure riding in the tropics.
“Today we lost an icon and a true gentleman,” one post on social media said.
The loss of Mr Martin, a self-confessed “bike nut”, is the latest body blow for a kinship of two wheels that has suffered numerous losses in recent years.
By all accounts, Mr Martin was an experienced road rider and had made a name for himself as the dedicated face of Martin’s Motorcycles & Scooters and exclusive agent for Royal Enfield in Cairns.
It was on a weekend only expected to bring exhilaration and the freedom of two wheels that Mr Martin was killed near Chillagoe, riding with mates to an off-road adventure event at Einasleigh.
His death on Saturday has sent shockwaves through the business community.
“I am knocked for six,” Wayne Leonard of Wayne Leonard Motorcycles said. “I have know him for nearly 15 years.”
Although a competitor in business, Mr Martin left a legacy of fair play and respect in riding circles.
“He was always fantastic, a really great bloke,” Mr Leonard said. “Everyone was always happy with him.”
Mr Martin did not hesitate to support his rivals when it came to fundraising.
“He was the opposition but he always came to ride with us and some times his wife came as well,” Mr Leonard said.
Coral Coast Riders spokeswoman Vanessa Loudon said Mr Martin ran “one of the last true bike shops”.
“He would service the bikes he sold,” Ms Loudon said.
“He will be sadly missed. “He championed mental health and was a staunch supporter of Coral Coast Riders.”
Hours after Mr Martin’s fatal crash, 21-year-old Tyler Pashen died in an ATV rollover at Mt Molloy.
The apprentice diesel fitter – who “grabbed hold of life by the horns” – died at the scene.
The Oakdare Holdings employee from Julatten has been remembered as a quiet achiever with a love of the outdoors, hunting and dirt bike riding.
Oakdare Holdings accountant Tayla Connolly said Mr Pashen began his career with the bulk haulage company in 2015 when he started a schoolbased apprenticeship.
“He was definitely into anything that had an engine,” she said.
Ms Connolly said Mr Pashen was an industrious employee who was a very switched-on member of the company’s Mt Garnet team.
“He was a very quiet achiever and very switched on in terms of his trade and was going to make an excellent tradesman one day,” she said.
A man in his 40s was also killed in Normanton just before 1am on Saturday in a crash on private property, and a 16-year-old-boy on Monday remained unidentified after a fatal rollover on the Lockhart River Mission Road about 8.40pm on Sunday.
The youth, a passenger in the vehicle, was taken to the Lockhart River Health Centre but could not be saved. The driver, 18, was not injured.