University mourns crash death of popular colleague

University of Otago staff are mourning the death of technician Rob Daly - a man with a passion for travelling on land by bike or soaring overhead on a hang-glider.

The 35-year-old, who survived a hang-glider crash in 2001, died after his bike was involved in a collision with a car allegedly being driven the wrong way in Great King St, Dunedin, early on Saturday.

He was flung on to the windscreen of the car and died at the scene, directly outside his workplace, the university's botany department.

Mr Daly's brother, Matthew, was killed at 25 in a kayaking accident on the Shotover River in Queenstown in 1998.

Floral and written tributes at the scene of the crash tell of a patient, understanding man who always had his door open to students and colleagues.

Associate Professor Paul Guy said yesterday that Mr Daly, who had worked in the botany department for nearly nine years, was not the "archetypal" computer technician.

"He was most comfortable in sandals and shorts and his office and workshop was an untidy assortment of bits of computers, jumbled with data loggers, cross-country skis, bows and arrows and other equipment essential to the department's fieldwork."

He was known for his stamina and determination to get the job done, once climbing a beech tree with his leg in a cast to retrieve a leaf sample for a student, said Professor Guy.

Other colleagues were too upset to speak about him yesterday.

An Oamaru youth, 15, has been charged with careless driving causing death and is due to appear in the Dunedin Youth Court tomorrow.

- NZPA