‘Colourful larrikin’: Tributes flow for Australian speed skating representative Neville Meikle

A Queensland man, who was killed while changing a car tyre on a motorway ramp, has been identified as an Australian speed skating representative.

Neville Meikle, 59, who was widely known as “Nifty”, represented Australia in the 1980 world speed skating championships.

Friend Hadyn Butler, said he and Mr Meikle used to be part of a “huge social hub” in the Brisbane suburb of Mount Gravatt in the late ’70s and ’80s.

Family and friends took to social media to pay tribute to the Brisbane man who was described as an “absolute character” and “colourful larrikin” with a “larger than life” attitude.

“Nifty was never short of a story and didn’t mind the occasional beer. A top-notch transmission specialist but also the ultimate bush mechanic – if you were broken down in the middle of nowhere, he would wander off and come back with a length of barbed wire and a soft drink can and somehow get the car running,” Mr Butler said.

“(He) was a world traveller … but when you least expected to see him somewhere he would turn up front and centre.”

Another friend, Stephen Haylock, said the universal sport had lost a “legend” and “truly unique individual”.

“He was a guy who told you upfront what he was thinking but was the first to say great work,” he wrote.

“He taught me a lot, one of the funniest guys.”

Police say Mr Meikle was changing a tyre on his ute on the side of the Sunshine Motorway off ramp at Tanawha when he was allegedly hit by a car at 5pm on Saturday, May 14.

The alleged driver, an 18-year-old woman, was not physically injured in the crash.

Paramedics rushed Mr Meikle to the Sunshine Coast University Hospital with serious chest injuries, but he died in hospital.

Forensic crash unit investigators are urging anyone who saw the incident or has dashcam footage to come forward.

The heartbreaking accident follows the deaths of two young mechanics, Lleyton Bartlett, 22, and Aaron Pitt, 25, who were killed after being hit by a car while helping a broken-down bus on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast in April.

The men were working for a CDC South East Queensland bus company at the time of the crash.