Motorcyclists killed in crash ‘great mates’

They were both mates with a passion for motorcycles who met up for weekend rides to the local coffee roadhouse.

But last Saturday in a turn of events, former Hamilton man Russell Blackford and Southlander Timothy James Meers, 50, were heading in different directions when they collided.

Meers, 50, was on a charity ride raising money for an unborn baby diagnosed with a congenital heart condition.

Only that morning Blackford, 41, had pulled out of the ride to spend the day fishing with his sister and her family at their coastal home at the bottom of the South Island.

As both men navigated the journey along the country road about 40km from Invercargill, a passing move on a blind corner sent them into each other’s path.

They crashed head-on at 12.45pm. Neither survived.

‘‘It turned out the rider was his friend and they both died at the scene,’’ his Ngaruwahia-based sister Zeta Bredesen said.

‘‘On Saturdays they’d exercise their Sportsters and on Sundays their Roadsters. They’d go for rides together, or sit there and talk bikes.’’

Blackford’s three sisters gathered in Hamilton yesterday to prepare to farewell their only brother.

They are appealing to the Waikato motorcycling fraternity for anyone who can provide an escort for his funeral in Hamilton on Monday.

‘‘In the charity ride there were 300 bikers, so it would be amazing if we could get anything near that – we’d just be happy to have some riders,’’ sister Zeta Bredesen said.

‘‘He loved riding bikes, he loved fishing and adventure, and cats.’’

Older sister, Paula Smith, had flown up from Colac Bay where she lived not far from Blackford, who worked as a painter and decorator in the small town of Athol.

She’d been at home with her husband and 18-year-old niece on November 17 waiting for him to arrive.

That morning he’d abandoned plans to participate in the charity ride to visit his sister – a two hour ride away.

‘‘He was bringing his new reel over to go fishing for the day, he was going to have dinner and stay the night.’’

She was expecting him in the early afternoon and preparing a ‘‘gourmet dinner’’.

As the day wore on, she became worried. ‘‘His dinner was in the oven and he hadn’t shown up.’’

Smith had seen news of the crash on Facebook and decided to call the local hospitals. She suspected he might have been a survivor of the crash, but never a fatality.

At 6pm they flicked on the news and caught details of the crash.

Blackford was one of four motorcyclists killed in the space of four hours on that Saturday afternoon.

‘‘I walked outside to have a cigarette and saw the police car drive up. We knew what he was there for.

‘‘The earth just opened up and swallowed us. Our parents are just devastated, mum’s heartbroken.’’

Blackford was a stickler for safe riding, his sisters say.

A post on his Facebook page two years to the day urged motorcyclists to ride to survive.

‘‘Don’t tell riders it’s dangerous, tell people on the roads to look where they’re going, check twice at intersections and don’t pass on blind corners,’’ reads the post.

Blackford grew up in Matangi and Hamilton before moving to Christchurch after the earthquake to work in the rebuild.

Five months ago he moved to Athol and was ‘‘loving it’’, Smith said. ‘‘He was just absolutely loving checking out the South Island and marking out the rides he’d done.

‘‘He used to joke that he never needed a wife or kids, as he had his bikes and cats. He was a big marshmallow, soft on the inside.’’

Police confirmed three riders were involved in the crash on Riverton Otautau Road. Another woman was taken to hospital.

The men were among eight to die in three days over that weekend, prompting a plea from police.

‘‘We need motorcycle riders not to take risks. Going too fast for the conditions or undertaking unsafe passing manoeuvres can have tragic consequences – both for riders and those sharing the road with them,’’ Superintendent Steve Greally said at the time.

So far this year 337 people have died in road crashes on the country’s roads – 43 of them motorcycle riders.

Anyone willing to provide a motorcycle escort from Seddon Park funeral home to Newstead on Monday is asked to contact Bredesen via Facebook.

‘‘They’d go for rides together, or sit there and talk bikes.’’ Zeta Bredesen