Motorsport fanatic dies in St Paul's Bay bypass accident

Mark Edwards started working as a dishwasher at The Arches restaurant in Mellieħa when he was just 15 and worked his way up the ladder to become one of the best chefs in the business.

On his way home from work, shortly before midnight on Wednesday, Mr Edwards, 35, a father of two, was involved in a traffic accident on the St Paul's Bay bypass.

According to the police, the Suzuki motorbike he was riding collided with another motorcycle, also a Suzuki, driven by a 21-year-old from St Paul's Bay.

Mr Edwards died on impact and the other motorcyclist was seriously injured.

Mr Edwards left behind him his wife Alison and his two daughters, Jade and Ella, the youngest one just three years old.

Condolences poured in on timesofmalta.com throughout the day yesterday as news of his tragic death spread.

"I cried my eyes out when I discovered that the young man who died in a motorbike accident in St Paul's Bay was Mark. There is absolutely nothing not to like about him. He was such a jovial character and a superb chef," said Mary Fisher, who has known him for half his lifetime.

Fighting hard to hold back her tears, Mrs Fisher told The Times that when Mr Edwards was 18, as part of the Institute of Tourism Studies course he was following, he was posted at the Imperial Hotel in Blackpool, the UK, where she and her husband Geoffrey first met him at their restaurant just outside the city. Mrs Fisher said she and her husband treated Mr Edwards over Christmas and kept in contact ever since.

She said they had done nothing for Mr Edwards except kept him company that Christmas but he remained so thankful for the little they had done.

He was a great guy who loved his family, his two children, motorbikes and Liverpool FC, his colleague, Luke Borg, said describing yesterday as a "black day". He said there was a big void at The Arches.

Mr Borg, who also works as a chef at The Arches, said he had only known Mr Edwards for less than a year but it was as though he had known him for years. Sometimes they would all go out for a drink after work or meet up with their families on their days off.

Karl Micallef, another chef and friend, said Mr Edwards worked at his family business at Paradise Bay Lido. "He taught me a lot and some of the dishes I can do are thanks to Mark," he said.

Mr Micallef said that even though Mr Edwards had had started working at The Arches, they remained in contact and played football every other Thursday. He said Mr Edwards was obsessed with motorsports and motorbikes, adding that it was unfortunate that that was the way he had to die.

Mr Edwards' funeral will be held at 3 p.m. today at the Mellieħa parish church.

Coincidentally, just three hours before the accident, Nationalist MP Ċensu Galea was speaking in Parliament about races held on the road where the fatality occurred. He said that on Saturday afternoons and on Sundays, especially between 7.15 and 10 a.m., motorcyclists gathered on the recently-rebuilt stretch to race their bikes.

However, the cause of the fatality in Wednesday's accident still has to be established.