A RADIO technician, who died in a car crash near Yackandandah on Thursday, was yesterday described as a brilliant worker who was a bit of a joker.
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Adam Barnes, 31, of Wodonga was killed when he was thrown from his car on Mount Baranduda.
The husband and father was the chief engineer at the Macquarie Albury Radio Centre.
Work colleagues were yesterday mourning the death of their much-loved workmate.
Macquarie Radio group general manager Garry Leddin said Mr Barnes was a great entertainer at his workplace.
“He was a brilliant technician with a heap of personality which in that field is (a combination that is) very few and far between,” Mr Leddin said.
“He was a bit of a joker, he would do character voices, and he loved interacting with people.”
Mr Barnes was this year among the three finalists in the Australian Commercial Radio Awards for engineering excellence.
“His commitment to the station was beyond anything I have come across before,” Mr Leddin said.
“He will leave an enormous hole, he will be very difficult if not impossible to replace.
“He was something special.”
Mr Barnes was heading to his workplace after attending to a transmitter on Mount Baranduda when the accident happened.
Police say he lost control of his vehicle on private property at the end of Ewarts Road, north of Yackandandah.
Police said he was thrown from the moving four-wheel-drive vehicle which continued rolling before crashing into a tree.
Mr Barnes’s body was found 8m away from where the vehicle came to a stop.
The crash is believed to have happened soon after 4pm and a workmate was the first on the scene at 5.30pm.
Police say the cause of the crash is still under investigation but it seemed speed may be a factor.
They said it was unlikely Mr Barnes was wearing a seatbelt.
Mr Barnes is survived by his wife Angela, his two daughters Jessica and Paris and stepchildren Braden, Mikaila and Emily.
