By Gary Cooper

A DEVASTATED Angus family yesterday paid a heartfelt tribute to a son and brother killed in a motorbike accident.

They spoke after police named the victim of a crash on the outskirts of Kirriemuir as Andrew Bell (24), of Kinnordy Estate, near the town.

Keen motorbiker Andrew was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident on the B957 Kirriemuir-Brechin road at tea time on Thursday.

He had been on his prized Kawasaki machine which was in collision with a Vauxhall Zafira, two miles outside Kirriemuir.

“He loved life and he lived life to the full,” said his mother, Dorothy, speaking at the family home near Glamis.

Only last month she waved her son goodbye as he left to set up home on his own in a cottage the single man was renting on the Kinnordy Estate.

He was building a run there for his German shepherd Tyson.

Mrs Bell, a nurse at Balhousie Lisden Care Home, Kirriemuir, and known as Dot, said motorbikes and cars had been her son’s life-long passions.

Ever since Andrew learned to walk, he was fascinated with cars and would often be seen helping his late father, Robert, fix up the family motor.

As they grew up, Andrew and his brother George (25), spent countless hours working on cars.

“They have always puddled about with cars and the pair of them could put an engine into a car blind fold,” Mrs Bell said.

“Often their pals would come round asking them if they could sort their cars, so there could be quite a few parked outside the house.

“If they ever needed bits for ` a car, they would think nothing of heading up to Inverness or wherever to get them.

“He was also into motorbikes at an early age and as soon as he could, he was on the road on a bike.”

He was often seen at the Crail motors mecca in Fife and took his own cars there.

Andrew was born in Forfar and attended primary school at Glamis then Webster’s High School, Kirriemuir.

In his fourth year he made such an impression on a tyre fitting firm where he had work experience he was offered a job.

Andrew took it and in his short life he was never out of employment, spending time in forestry, then with a blacksmith but most of his working life was in the construction industry.

His construction work took him all over Scotland and he had been working on lodges at Dalwhinnie most recently.

“If he had one job that ended, there would always be another,” his mother said. “And he never left a job with any ill-feeling.”

His family said he was always on the go as he never turned down a chance to help anyone.

This week he had been helping to decorate the kitchen of a family friend.

But the arrival of better weather and lighter evenings meant Andrew could enjoy his bike at night.

Mrs Bell said, “This was the start of him getting out in the evenings because of the light nights, as the bike had been in the shed.”

Andrew also enjoyed socialising in Kirriemuir and Forfar and was never short of friends.

“You never saw Andrew down in the dumps, he was bubbly and usually had a smile on his face,” Mrs Bell added.

Andrew is survived by his mother and brothers George and Robert (27).

Meanwhile, police repeated their appeals for anyone in the area at the time of Thursday’s accident to contact them.

A spokesman said, “Officers would particularly like to hear from the rider of a yellow motorcycle that was immediately in front of the deceased’s bike, just prior to the collision.

“It is possible this person and Mr Bell were travelling together.”

Anyone with information is urged to contact 0845 600 5705.