19/05/2014 BBC Newsline

Good evening. Tributes have been paid to the road racer Simon Andrews

who crashed at the NorthWest 200 and died today. The 31-year-old from

Worcestershire in England crashed during the Superstock race on

Saturday and was airlifted to hospital. Tonight his family said

"Racing was in his blood." Martin Cassidy reports.

Simon Andrews had only recently returned to top-class competition

following a serious injury well taking place in another

international motorcycling event. His BMW machine is pictured here at

the start of the Superstock race at the North West 200 on Saturday. The

31 euros from Worcestershire crashed on the approach to this corner on

lap four of the race. No other riders were involved. After medical

care at the track-side, the rider was airlifted to the intensive care

unit at the Royal Victoria Hospital, where he died today with his

parents, girlfriend, and best friend by his bed. We are devastated. Our

hearts are broken, they are shattered. Simon loved his racing.

You love the North West, he loved racing over a year. He wouldn't have

changed anything. If we had tried to stop him, he wouldn't have stopped

racing. He loved the people, he loved the atmosphere, he loved every

single moment. Tonight the world of motorcycle racing has been paying

tribute to Simon Andrews. Veteran racer Jeremy McWilliams has tweeted

he is very sorry to hear the terrible news. World Superbike racer

Jonathan Bray said such sad news hearing that Simon Andrews has

passed away. Gone away too soon. Mervyn Whyte says the circumstances

of the crash will be fully investigated. We have worked and

worked and worked on safety over the years, and we will continue to do

that. That is uppermost in our minds. Safety is a priority for your

competitors and your spectators. We will certainly look and see what

happened at that particular occasion, but now is not the time to

look at where we are, but to move forward and see what we do in the

future his parents said Simon was fully aware of the dangers involved,

but loved the challenge of rogue racing. You never expect you're

going to lose your son, watch you can't stop a grown man doing what he

wants. It seems to be in the blood, it is an adrenaline race, and they

just love being on motorcycles. But they know the risks, and we paid the

price. Another racer at the North West 200, Franck Petricola is still

critically ill in hospital. The Frenchman was hurt during a practice

session last Tuesday. The County Down rider Michael

Pearson is seriously injured after a crash in the Czech Republic

yesterday. The Ballygowan man was taking part in a superbike event.

And many BBC Newsline viewers have been logging onto our Facebook Page

with some adding messages of sympathy following the death of

Simon Andrews. The fisherman who was rescued off

the coast in County Donegal yesterday has been released from

hospital. A man on land half a mile away heard him cry for help as he

held onto a lobster buoy and the emergency services were alerted. He

was picked up by an RNLI crew and brought ashore. Earlier today Our

North West reporter Keiron Tourish went to Tullagh Bay.

By any stretch of the imagination, this was quite a remarkable turn of

events yesterday afternoon about 2pm. A local fisherman was out

tending his lobster pots, when he got into difficulty. This story

could easily have turned to tragedy, but for the heroics of one local

family. John Grant, what actually happened? We were on the house

working with sheep, and we thought we could somebody shouting for

help. We couldn't really make it out, it was really think. My mum

told me to come down on the quad and have a look. I came down and I

couldn't see anything, and I asked a couple people if they had heard

anything and they said no. I looked again and scanned across the water,

and I could see a black dot echoing the distance, and I could see an arm

waving, and I knew there was somebody in trouble out there, and I

had no phone with me so I came back up and said to my mum, there is

somebody out there in trouble. And that is where you came into play.

What happened next? , well, when John gave me the signal, I rang

because guard and the doctor need to everything. They dispatched to

lifeboats and a helicopter from Sligo, and luckily enough, there was

a bolt out on a fishing trip, and the responded straightaway. I stood

up on the quad and I guided the boat to where the man was in the water.

We were on scene about three or four minutes later and cruel -- crew had

boarded the vessel. Then we were treating him for first aid, for

hypothermia. And the helicopter had landed on scene. The helicopter

paramedic had then come down and we had already transferred because of

the two-hour board. It could have gone to ways, but thankfully it went

in our favour. Quite a dramatic operation, and quicker magic that is

we have seen today. It was, but at the time you did not think of

dramatics at all, you were just glad that the man in the water was being

saved. Thank God it had a happy outcome. There is a wife and four

children who still have a father. The US financial services firm,

Citigroup, is set to announce a significant investment in its

Belfast operation. Industry sources have told the BBC that the firm is

expected to shortly announce at least one hundred new jobs. The

company employs about thirteen hundred people at two offices in the

Titanic Quarter, working mainly in technology and compliance.

The police have set up a dedicated phone line for reporting hate crime.

The recent spate of racist attacks has led to the move. The police will

be able to translate calls into almost 50 languages. The new service

can be contacted through the non emergency 101 number. We are trying

to encourage as many victims as possible to feel comfortable enough

to contact the police service and tellers of these incidents so that

we can deal with them effectively. We are not going to arrest anybody,

because we know that this is an issue that a new Northern Ireland is

going to have to get to grips with. I think this is good for anybody who

has witnessed hate crime, it is good to encourage anybody who has been a

witness to contact the police, although we can't lose concentration

on the fact that this has been an ongoing issue for many years, and it

needs to be an issue that is looked at any very strategic and joined up

way. We can't rely on the helpline to solve the problem or the issue.

Looking ahead to some special reports starting tomorrow on BBC

News. Our reporter Andy West spent four days and nights living rough on

the streets of Belfast to discover a little of what it's like to be

homeless. That first report is on BBC Newsline tomorrow evening at

6.30pm. Funny how different the world looks from down here.

Completely different view on the world is passing by. It's also funny

how people, almost all people, do exactly the same thing when they

walk past. They look at you and then instantly look away. Andy will also

be talking about his experience on the radio on Good Morning Ulster and

his diary is on our News Online site.

The weather is next with Barra Best. It got quite exciting earlier as we

have the thunderstorms moving in. We may get some more thunderstorms in

the next few hours. But generally it will come down over the course of

the night, and we will have a lot of cloud around, so not so-called.

Temperatures of 11 or 12 Celsius. Low pressure is in control, and that

means it will be quite unsettled. A rather Bray and cloudy day

tomorrow. Not raining all day, but we will see some outbreaks coming in

from the Irish Sea. There will be the odd rumble of thunder too, and

some quite heavy downpours, so do prepare yourself a few are out and

about. It will be an unsettled night across the Northern Ireland, and

also into Wales to. Any unsettled weather for eastern areas of England

will gradually die away, and here we have temperatures getting up into

the low 20s, and not a bad day for Scotland as well. Although generally

cooler. Some of the showers we get across Britain tomorrow may well be

heavy with some thunder too, so something to bear in mind. Out and

about tomorrow, it will not be raining all day, there will be some

drier weather too, and it will be a bit mitre -- milder. We will see

tempter is nudging up to 17 Celsius. Some good news as we head towards

the middle of the week, things will settle down, especially for central

and eastern areas. We will keep you updated the and on twitter. That's

all for now. Good night. Let's look at the history

of BBC TWO with me, Simon Schama. 'Harry And Paul's

Story Of The 2s - part of 'the Big Bumper Bank Holiday

Comedy 50th Birthday Weekend.'