A WIFE has paid tribute to a loving husband and father killed in a road accident. Timothy Hammond, 36, died when his motorcycle was in collision with a car in Hollow Lane, Snodland, near Rochester, on Sunday April 24.

The driver of the car was taken to Maidstone Hospital with minor injuries.

Mr Hammond, of Gassons Road, Snodland, was a chief engineer for the papermaker Smurfit Townsend Hook, Snodland, where he had worked since joining as a 16-year-old apprentice.

His wife, Karen, 37, whom he met on a blind date through a mutual friend in 1994, said she and their son Jacob, four, were surrounded by a loving and supportive family.

“Jacob knows that his daddy isn’t coming back" she said. "But I am trying to come to terms with the fact that he won’t have a dad to guide him while he is growing up.

“We won’t learn to live without Tim, but we could not ask for a better family and I know he would be thankful for that. I never knew anyone like him and never will again. He was as the love of my life."

Mr Hammond, who has three brothers was born in Godden Road, Snodland, at his family home where his parents, Len and Gerda, still live.

One brother, Brian, said Mr Hammond had been interested in bikes since he was a teenager and was an experienced rider.

“He had a great respect for the machine and knew how powerful it was,” he said. “He died doing the thing he loved doing most.”