Hamilton motorcycle crash victim named by police

Police at the scene of a fatal crash which claimed the life of Hamilton man Richard Bennett. Photo / Belinda Feek

A man who died after his motorbike and a car collided in Hamilton has been named by police as Richard James Bennett.

Bennett's friends are taking to Facebook to remember their mate as someone who was always on hand to help out, especially if their car or motorbike needed a bit of work.

The 32-year-old was riding north along Greenwood St about 1pm on Sunday when his bike crashed into the side of a Mazda Demio which had earlier pulled out of a driveway.

Witnesses and business owners earlier saw Bennett speeding and pulling a wheelie just seconds before the crash.

He died at the scene.

Bennett's Facebook page has been turned into a tribute page with several friends posting their thoughts. One posted "such a genuine and straight up guy who was all ways willing to lend a hand", while another wrote "Rest easy fellow rider, may you carve up those long white clouds, RIP".

Bennett was a fitter/welder by trade but had been helping out at World of Tyres, where he had just left prior to crashing.

Chris Seeley, owner of World of Tyres on Greenwood St, earlier told the Herald Bennett he was a talented engineer who also had a love of cars.

Bennett was working part-time as an engineer but had also been helping him out in his tyre business as he had a love of cars and motorbikes.

"He was the sort of guy that could put his hand to anything, he was a real switched on guy ... he was on ACC because he had a back injury so he was just coming spending time learning a bit about the business in the hope that he would start his own business in a similar [car] industry one day."

Seeley said he appeared like a hard guy, but deep down he was "a real softy".

"He was always good for a laugh. He was one of those guys who, on the outside, if you didn't now him you would take him as a bit of a roughneck but he was a real softy once you got to know him. Just a real nice guy, he wouldn't hurt anybody."

He admitted Bennett was "probably going a bit faster than he should have been" before crashing into a car which appeared to have pulled out of a driveway.

However, Seeley said the Bennett's bike - a 1000cc Yamaha R1 - was pretty powerful and wouldn't have taken much to get up a bit of speed.

World of Tyres is open seven days and was open at the time of the crash, however the doors shut immediately upon news of the crash.