A 69-year-old man, who died after being hit by an electric bike on the Mornington Peninsula, is being remembered as a lover of life who cared for people.
William Lothian died on Tuesday after being hit by the modified e-bike while crossing Frankston-Flinders Road in Hastings on Monday night.
Ray Lothian, brother of William Lothian who was killed after being hit by a modified e-bike.Credit: Nine
The rider, a 24-year-old man, was also injured and taken to The Alfred hospital. He remained in a stable condition on Wednesday afternoon, and police are yet to speak to him.
Ray Lothian told The Age that he and William, his older brother, were both retired and on the pension and had lived together in Hastings for years.
William Lothian died after he was hit by an e-bike in Hastings on the Mornington Peninsula.
He said William had been walking to get them dinner on Monday night when he was hit by the bike. “He hated the bus,” Ray said.
“I saw a [porch] light [turn on], and I thought, ‘Thank God for that, he’s home’, because he was taking a long time and I was getting hungry.”
But it turned out that it was police, rather than William, on the front doorstep. “All of a sudden, there was another light and a knock on the door. So I answered the door and there’s two policemen there. And they informed me William had been hit,” Ray said.
“I felt numb after that. I just sat in my room in a daze.”
William died a day after he was hit by the e-bike, but Ray said he was unable to get to the Royal Melbourne Hospital to say goodbye to his brother because he didn’t drive due to health issues.
“We leaned on each other and had fun together,” Ray said of his bond with William.
A pedestrian was struck by an illegally modified electric bike in Hastings.Credit: Nine News
“If one of us was upset or down in the dumps, the other one would try and bring them back up again – crack a joke and that. He loved life, he cared about people.”
Ray said William’s wish was to be buried in the Hastings cemetery with the rest of their family.
He said he would like to see e-bikes, like the one involved in Monday night’s crash, removed from Victoria’s roads.
“I’d like to see them all taken off the streets and melted down and made into something a bit more useful,” he said.
Ray also expressed gratitude to the neighbours on the street he and William lived on, one of whom helped by providing him with some food on Wednesday night.
“[William] was a really nice guy,” said another neighbour, Lewis Jensen. “He deserved to live his life out.”
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