The stretch of road in Te Puke where Lisa Yieng died. Photo / Andrew Warner
The stretch of road in Te Puke where Lisa Yieng died. Photo / Andrew Warner
She was only slight, but Lisa Yieng was a tireless fruit-picking worker who used stilts to get around the orchard and had contractors begging her to work for them.
The close-knit community of kiwifruit workers in Te Puke is grieving after the Malaysian-born wife and mother died in a car accident on Saturday morning.
The 36-year-old, whose official name is Sing Yieng Pau but who is known locally as Lisa Yieng, is the first of two victims during the Queen's Birthday road toll period, which began at 4pm Friday and ends at 6am tomorrow.
Lisa Yieng
She had set off from the cottage she lived in at Kiwi Corral backpackers in Te Puke just after 7am, leaving behind husband of 18 years, Andy Ting, and daughter Orwyn, 10.
The couple had been living at Kiwi Corral for the past couple of years and had moved to New Zealand seven years ago.
Mr Ting went to a cooking school in Auckland when they moved to New Zealand, with his wife supporting him on his $18,000-a-year course by working in Te Puke.
"Lisa always supported me," he said. "She worked so hard. When we first came, we survived on $100 a week between us. She came down to Te Puke because she knew she could earn money. Jobs were hard to find in Auckland and we had to live apart."
Their daughter Orwyn used to be cared for by her grandmother back in Sarawak, Malaysia, but was brought to New Zealand last November with family members and attends Fairhaven School in Te Puke.
Kiwi Corral manager and family friend Wes Archer said: "Lisa was a well respected worker around here. 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."
Andy Ting and daughter Orwyn, 10.
Mr Archer's partner Claudia met Ms Yieng while both of them were working at Trevelyan's Pack and Cool four years ago.
"Through their friendship, Lisa and Andy came to be living in a cottage here. Lisa was often helping out in Kiwi Corral.
"She was a lovely person. Many people will be upset by this accident."
Mr Ting, who is a Buddhist, is awaiting the arrival of Ms Yieng's sister before holding a private cremation in Tauranga. He plans to hold a memorial service, open to all their friends, at Kiwi Corral later this week before taking her ashes back to Malaysia.
Christine Spargo, who lives outside where the crash happened, heard "an almighty big bang" and raced down her driveway to help.
She then ran back to her home to grab towels to assist Ms Yieng.
She said someone who had stopped to help found a light pulse but Ms Yieng died on the way to hospital.
Ms Spargo said she tried to comfort Ms Yieng but became emotional.
"I just turned to this guy and said 'I'm sorry, I can't', because I was just freaking out a bit."
The second fatal crash of the weekend happened about 1.15pm yesterday.
A female motorbike passenger died and her male driver suffered serious leg injuries on SH1 near the small township of Sefton, about 40km north of Christchurch.
The official road toll last night stood at two for the weekend.
Last year the Queen's Birthday weekend road toll was five.
Te Puke death brings toll near 2014
The death of Te Puke mother Lisa Yieng brings the string of road tragedies in the Western Bay this year to 15 - one less than the whole of 2014.
Last year there were 14 fatal crashes on Western Bay roads, resulting in 16 deaths.
Earlier this month three women died when their minivan was involved in a fiery collision with a car, about 200m east of Ainsworth Rd along SH2 at Te Puna.
The crash happened a stone's throw from where a pedestrian was killed after being hit by a truck in January.
The latest crash involving Ms Yieng's car and a logging truck happened at 7.35am on Saturday on SH2 near Pah Road in Te Puke.
Tauranga Police Acting Senior Sergeant Scott Merritt said it appeared Ms Yieng, 36, was trying to make a U-turn when the truck struck her vehicle. The driver of the truck appeared to be uninjured, he said.
Western Bay road policing Sergeant Wayne Hunter said Ms Yieng did not see the logging truck on the road before she pulled out into its path.
"She was travelling on the road towards Te Puke and pulled over on the road to let some cars pass and she obviously didn't see a logging truck going in the same direction - she did a U-turn in front of the truck," he said.
"The vehicles collided and the truck basically T-boned her. The truck had no way of stopping in time."
Mr Hunter said there had previously been a crash on the same stretch of road but he believed the road was safe.
Mr Merritt said serious crash investigators had attended the crash scene, and inquiries were continuing to establish further details into the exact cause of the crash.
Police would like to speak to any witnesses who had not already been spoken to.
Mr Merritt said police wanted to reinforce the message to all motorists to take extra care to ensure they arrived at their destination.
Witnesses to the latest crash should call Tauranga Police on 577 4300.
January 1: Kerikeri man Paul Kapica, 24, died after the 4WD he was driving rolled on the beach near Harrison's Cut, Papamoa.
January 22: Aucklander Santhosh Kumar Cherukuir, 27, died in a head-on collision on SH2 Pahoia.
January 30: Grant Coley, 59, was killed while walking along SH2, Te Puna.
February 1: Maddison Daisy Ward, 2, died after a car she was a passenger in hit a power pole and careered through a fence in Oropi Rd.
February 26: Frenchman Nathan Luc Boucher, 23, died after his car and a truck and trailer unit collided on SH2 near Omokoroa.
March 4: Kruze Delma Waitohi Waaka-Skudder, 18, died after the Subaru car he was a passenger in and a truck collided on Plummers Point Rd, near Bruntwood Drive.
March 30: Te Puke father-of-two Ian Barton Foote, 47, died at the scene after the car he was driving and another vehicle collided on State Highway 33 at Paengaroa.
April 8: Motorcyclist Clinton Hunter, 26, died after a collision with a car outside the Bethlehem Country Club on Carmichael Rd.
April 10: Levi Green, 18, was the driver and sole occupant of a Nissan Cefiro that plunged down the side of a 10-metre bank in Oropi.
April 21: Pukehina farmer Ian Robert McKenzie, 75, died after being struck by a car while shifting stock on the road near his home.
May 6: Napalese man Raj Mahat, 33, died in Waikato Hospital after being critically injured in a a a two vehicle crash on SH33 Paengaroa on April 27.
May 9: Auckland women Tevunga Vaea, 71, her daughter Louina Vaea, 45, and daughter-in-law Takua Vaea, 32, died after their minivan and car collided on SH2 between Whakamarama and Te Puna.
