Damaged valve focus of freak-accident inquiry

A family friend of a woman killed by a flying fire extinguisher in a freak workplace accident says her two young children are struggling to come to terms with the tragedy.

Tracy Uhlenberg, 32, was killed last weekend after being hit in the head while visiting husband Daryl at the family's trucking firm, Uhlenberg Haulage in Eltham, South Taranaki.

The family have two children, Erin, 4, and Brad, 5. "They're too young to understand," said Kerry O'Keefe, a close friend who employed Tracy for several years at a local service station. "They just want their mummy."

An emotional Mr O'Keefe said he regarded Mrs Uhlenberg as a daughter and the children as his own grandkids. The day she died she had taken them to visit their dad at work.

"She went to get smoko for all the boys and came back. They were all having smoko when it happened. The kids were out of sight at the time. Devastated doesn't begin to describe how the town feels," said Mr O'Keefe.

He remembered Mrs Uhlenberg as cheerful but forthright. "She got on well with most people but she was straight up and down." Mr O'Keefe said Tracy's ambition had been to return with her family to her home town Napier, where her funeral was held last week.

Nobody at Uhlenberg Haulage was prepared to talk about last week's incident.

Preliminary investigations by Occupational Safety and Health show a valve on the extinguisher may have been damaged when it was knocked over.

Taranaki manager Brett Murray said it would be several days before interviews with the company would be completed.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY