Dieter Vink was a true gentleman, said friends of the 54-year-old British motorcyclist, who died on Friday night, two days after crashing into a skip placed on a curve of the bypass leading to Xemxija.

Friends and acquaintances have remembered Vink as a warm and principled man who left an indelible mark on their lives but there is palpable anger over whether the tragedy could have been prevented. 

Fleur Marie Cilia Buckett, who had been friends with Vink for 17 years, described the victim as "an amazing man" who stood by her in her darkest hours. In return, she stayed by his side in the hours following his tragic crash.

“He was a man full of morals, good Yorkshire stock, and an animal lover to his core,” she said. Buckett recalled how they met on the social platform Hi5, where Vink adopted his beloved cats, Xemx and Bomba, who are now in need of a new home.

Buckett expressed her devastation upon learning of his accident from a Times of Malta online report.

“My heart stopped, and I howled in disbelief. He was so careful - that could have easily been any of us.”

Determined to honour her friend’s memory, Buckett is organising a bike ride in his name on December 28, starting at Mater Dei Hospital and ending at Xemxija Pitstop, where donations will be collected to help pay for his cremation and lawyers' fees. They will also set up a GoFundMe page for the above. 

“I can assure you I will fight tooth and nail till justice is served,” she added.

Cilia Buckett and Vink.

Dorian Sid Turner, a fellow motorcyclist and a friend of Vink for 10 years, echoed these sentiments. “The world lost a true gentleman,” he said, reminiscing about how Vink, a freelance hairdresser, would cut his and his son’s hair.

“He was such a good listener. Even if I was having a bad day, somehow he could make me smile,” Turner added.

Speaking on behalf of the biking community, he vowed that Vink’s death would not be in vain. “We will not rest until justice is served,” Turner said.

Vink, who lived in Malta since the 1990s, originally hailed from Yorkshire, England. After training as a hairdresser, he later became a customer service specialist. For the past five years, he was a familiar face at the Xemxija Pitstop, where owner Vickie Cutajar described him as “a true gentleman” and “a very good client.”

“Dieter was warm and friendly,” Cutajar said, adding that customers recognised him immediately from news reporting the accident because of his motorcycle. She shared how Vink would often stop by on his way to work for his usual Americano and toast, a routine the staff will deeply miss.

The police confirmed that Vink was riding his Honda motorcycle on Wednesday evening when he collided with the skip. Although emergency responders took him to Mater Dei Hospital, he succumbed to his injuries on Friday.

Transport Malta, Infrastructure Malta, and the St Paul’s Bay local council have denied issuing any permit for the skip to be placed in the busy thoroughfare.

The skip is believed to have been placed by a contractor working on a boundary wall.

St Paul’s Bay mayor Censu Galea said that residents had previously raised safety concerns about the skip, which had been placed at the same location months earlier.