Tributes have been paid to a 26-year-old leading cricket player who died in a motorbike accident on North Shore Road on Thursday night.

Travis Smith, of St. George's, was riding a motorbike west when he was involved in a collision with a Suzuki car heading east as it turned into the Terceira gas station on the parish border of Smith's and Devonshire. He is Bermuda's sixth road fatality of the year.

The former St. George's Cricket Club cup match player was believed to have been returning from the funeral service and wake for teenager Derick Paynter Jr. who was killed in a road accident in St. George's on June 29.

Mr. Smith, who has a young son, was remembered by politicians and Government Ministers when Parliament met yesterday.

Minister for Public Safety Randy Horton said: "Even more tragically, the death of this young St. Georgian occurred on the day of the funeral of 17-year-old Derick Paynter Jr., also of St. George's, who had lost his life in a road traffic collision in St. George's a week earlier.

"What a sad week for St. George's and for all of Bermuda, the lives of two of our young men suddenly snatched away all too soon."

He said sympathies went out to the families of the two men and he said the public should be reassured that Government was remaining vigilant to the need to educate the public "with respect to safety on the Island's roads".

Dame Jennifer Smith said Mr. Smith worked for Works and Engineering in the air conditioning department in "a job he loved and had everything to live for". She said he had been riding a brand new bike at the time of the accident.

Shadow Finance Minister Pat Gordon Pamplin had known Mr. Smith since he was a toddler when his father "would drag him along to Wellington Ball Park".

While MP Nelson Bascome said the St. George's man was "a young man full of life."

UBP Opposition House Leader John Barritt commented: "He was a very lively character, no question about that."

And Heath Minister Patrice Minors said she had known him through his mother and, since he has a one-year-old child, said: "It's tragic to know there's a child who will go through the rest of his life without his father here for him."

Minister Horton said: "We do not know at this time all the circumstances of the deaths of Derick and Travis. However, as their families and friends mourn their passing, we must as a community turn our attention to the reasons for this state of affairs and what we might so as a community to improve the situation.

"At the forefront is the Bermuda Police Service, charged with the responsibility of ensuring that road users adhere to the law and the rules of the road, thereby ensuring safe passage for all road users. The Road Safety Council, under the Ministry of Tourism and Transport remains vigilant in its efforts to educate the public with respect to safety on the Island's roads."

He added: "The people of Bermuda may be assured that the Bermuda Police Service will be unrelenting in its efforts to improve riding and driving conditions on our roads, thereby reducing the likelihood that future parents will be required to experience the kind of monumental grief currently experienced by the Davis, Paynter and Smith families."