Colleagues raise toast to 'great guy'

Kenny McRae. Photo / Supplied

Colleagues of a former vehicle salesman killed as he changed the tyre of a car spent a day paying tribute to him using the motto "Sell, sell, sell".

Kenny McRae, 52, and a woman from the car he stopped to help, died after being hit on State Highway 29A near Tauranga on Friday afternoon.

Police are yet to name the woman or her partner who was seriously injured and remained in Tauranga Hospital intensive care until last night in a stable condition.

The injured man was due to undergo surgery to repair a fractured ankle.

Tauranga Turners Auctions branch manager Carl Jarmin said McRae had worked for the firm for four years and only left in February to pursue other employment opportunities.

"Kenny was a really great guy, really likeable and heaps of fun to be around. He would just light up a room when he walked in. He was always getting up to some kind of high jinks, often with his best mate and they always joking and laughing.

"Kenny and his best mate were a very tight unit. I used to call the pair loveable larrikins."

He said was McRae always such an enthusiastic seller, so 'sell, sell, sell' became the firm's motto for Saturday, and they later held a toast for him.

A close friend of the dead woman said: "It's been a real shock to everyone ... I still can't believe it. My friend was a fun-loving lady, and so full of life and energy. She was a brilliant woman."