Tragic death of tireless worker

The road is marked where the fatal car crash happened.

Hearts are heavy at Kiwi Corral backpackers in Te Puke as the close community of kiwifruit workers cope with the tragic death of a tireless worker, wife and mother in an accident on Saturday morning.

Lisa Yieng, 36, set off from Kiwi Corral for work as usual just after 7am, leaving behind her husband of 18 years' chef Andy Ting and daughter Orwyn, 10.

Ms Yieng was well known around Te Puke kiwifruit packhouses.

The road is marked where the fatal car crash happened.

"She worked in most of them during the past four years she been in this area," said Kiwi Corral manager and family friend Wes Archer.

She was headed for the day shift at EastPack when her husband thought she must have realised she'd forgotten something.

Police said in a statement on Saturday that she had made a U-turn which put her in the path of a 40-tonne logging truck on State Highway 2 near Waitangi.

"I'm not sure why she was turning to come back," said a grief-stricken Mr Ting.

"I can't find anything that may be the reason for her to return."

Police said the driver of the truck appeared to be uninjured.

The couple had been living at Kiwi Corral for the past couple of years - Ms Yieng working in kiwifruit and picking nashi pears and Mr Ting heading to Tauranga for his work.

They came to New Zealand seven years ago. They married when Ms Yieng was 19 and Mr Ting 22. At that stage their daughter Orwyn was being cared for by her grandmother back in Sarawak, Malaysia.

"Lisa was a well respected worker around here," said Mr Archer,

"We'd have contractors turning up begging her to work for them. She wasn't very tall and when she was picking nashi pears she'd be wearing stilts and boy could she get around on them."Mr Ting was awaiting the arrival of Ms Yieng's sister before holding a private cremation in Tauranga. He planned to hold a memorial service, open to all their friends, at Kiwi Corral later this week before taking the ashes back to Malaysia.

One of the first on the scene was Christine Spargo, who heard an "almighty big bang".

Ms Spargo raced down her driveway to the scene of the collision where she found other drivers had stopped to help.

Ms Spargo called for the site to be reduced to a 70km speed limit. "It shouldn't be a hundred kilometres, it should be seventy. It's a bend in the road and cars go too fast along there."