Dunedin police have named the motorcyclist killed on Forbury Rd on Thursday night as Tattoo artist and father of three Daniel John Wadsworth (34), of Dunedin.
Mr Wadsworth was killed when his Harley-Davidson motorcycle collided with a Ford Mondeo, driven by a 23-year-old woman. The motorcycle had ignited on impact.
A group of the deceased motorcyclist's friends and colleagues gathered next to floral tributes at his workplace, Tattrix Custom Tattoos, on Kaikorai Valley Rd, yesterday, and shared memories of their old school friend.
They described him as being a "genuine hard man, who said things how they were".
But he was "soft" when it came to his daughter and two step-children.
Colleague and tattooist Matt Wilson said Mr Wadsworth had been a tattoo artist for 12 years and had become well known as a great artist among tattooists in Dunedin.
"He taught me the art. He was hard on me, but I'm better for it.
"You always got a life-lesson from him when you talked to him."
The Serious Crash Unit conducted a scene investigation yesterday morning, and Dunedin Police Senior Sergeant Steve Aitken said officers were still speaking to witnesses to determine the cause of the crash.
A postmortem was also being conducted, but results were not expected to be available for several weeks.
Snr Sgt Aitken said there were four motor-vehicle accidents on Thursday, and a further two yesterday morning.
"That's six in 24 hours. There's just no reason for it.
"It's a busy time of year with people rushing about doing their Christmas shopping, people from cruise ships. A lot of people seem to be looking at the sun because we haven't seen it for a long time.
"People need to drive safely. We certainly don't want to be dealing with crashes and fatalities at this time of the year."
