Tributes to bike crash victim

Aug 29 2007 By Steve Johnson, Birmingham Mail

A SEA of floral tributes and messages of sympathy have been left at the scene of an horrific fatal road smash in West Bromwich.

Ikbal Singh Purewal, aged 18, was a highly promising student at Sandwell College.

The teenager, of Treddles Lane, West Bromwich, died when his motorcycle ploughed into a car in Dartmouth Street on Friday night.

Police said that the green Kawasaki, which was travelling along Dartmouth Street, burst into flames on impact with the Ford Granada, which was turning right into Richard Street.

A post mortem examination has not yet been carried out and no cause of death has been established.

Meanwhile friends and family have been leaving their own tributes at the scene of the crash, outside Dartmouth Medical Centre and near to the Midland Metro stop.

One of the messages paid tribute to Ikbal as a "warm-hearted and funny guy" who knew how to put a smile on anyone's face.

Police today repeated a call for witnesses to the accident, which happened just after 10pm.

A spokesman said that the 43-year-old man who was driving the car was uninjured but badly shaken.

Ikbal was on the first year of a photo-imaging course at Sandwell College, where last year he did a GCSE course in Punjabi. his mother tongue.

His course tutor Alan Cave today paid a glowing tribute to the youngster, whom he said was one of the "brightest and finest."

"Ikbal was very popular, always smiling and extremely likeable.

"He was full of promise and his death is very hard to accept - we will miss him very much.

"At times he could be infuriating but his personality was such that no-one could take offence at him. He was a great chap."

Anyone with information on the accident was asked to contact the traffic department at West Bromwich police on 0845 1135000.