Mr Aspden said the truck was parked on the side of the road just after the free turn onto the Strand, and a tarpaulin lay on the road in the free turn section behind the truck.
"I thought the truck had lost its load or something, but looked ... and saw it was a white tarpaulin and thought, 'Oh ok, some poor bugger's under there'."
Mr Aspden, who runs around the area frequently, said he found it hard to imagine how a pedestrian could not have seen a vehicle coming at that intersection.
"It was a clear morning, there was no rain or anything. It was dry, not windy.
"At that time of the morning it's not that busy along that road."
He said he had seen a cyclist get hit by a car several months ago further along Tamaki Drive, although the cyclist was able to walk away from the crash.
Parnell resident Tim Bird said from where he lived on the Strand he often observed trucks coming from the port down the Strand.
"They seem in a hurry to get out of the port to obviously get things delivered as quickly as possible," he said.
"The speed is just ridiculous sometimes."
National Road Carriers Association chairman Chris Carr said the truck driver would be "shattered".
He could not confirm the carrier at this stage, but the truck involved was carrying a 20ft container, which was "not heavy in truck terms".
"I don't know quite what the circumstances were or how it happened.
"It's obviously a heck of a tragedy for the people concerned."
Mr Carr said it was mostly a "perception rather than reality"that trucks sped through the area on their way out of the port.
"That particular corner trucks are coming out of the port loaded ... they wouldn't be going especially fast, it's a 90 degree turn.
"As far as we could see the truck was in the right place on the road, it certainly wasn't anywhere it shouldn't have been."
Police would not release any further details of what caused the crash, or the victim's identity.
