Kevin Smith

From the Mornington Peninsula Leader

DISTRAUGHT family members have spoken of their love for the passionate
cyclist knocked down and killed on the Nepean Highway last week.

Retired businessman Kevin Smith, 72, died after he was struck by a van near Volitans Ave, Mt Eliza, just before 9am on April 21.

Mr Smith, who leaves his wife, Pat, and three children, and nine grandchildren, was pronounced dead at the scene.

He had been on his daily ride and planned to meet his wife at home in Mt Eliza before going to the gym together.

Cyclists last week placed a white bike - dubbed a “ghost bike” - near Volitans Ave as a memorial to Kevin Smith.

A note attached to the bike read: “The death of a fellow bicyclist
hits home. We all travel the same unsafe streets and face the same
risks; it could just as easily be any one of us.”

For his widow, it is the small reminders that make her loss so hard to bear.

Mrs Smith said she still can’t bring herself to remove her
husband’s toothbrush from the bathroom sink. “I always worried about
him on Nepean Highway, but if he had to go, that was the best way,” she
said.

Mr Smith started cycling in 2003 and rode most days during the warmer weather.

Dallas Purdey said his grandfather was “an extraordinary human”. “I don’t know what I’m going to do without him,” he said.

Mr Purdey said after his family, riding was Mr Smith’s passion.

“He’d say I’m going here and there. To ride 52km nearly every day,
he was phenomenal. It was only six weeks ago he bought himself a new
bike,” he said. 

Up until last week Mr Smith was still going to work at the storage and removalist business he started in 1968.

Son Mick Smith said: “He was just the best guy.

“You don’t get any better than him. He’d always be taking care of everyone and every situation.”

Police investigations into the accident are continuing. 

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A group of cyclists installed a ghostbike in his memory alongside the bike lane where he was hit.