Jesse Bucknell, 27, was driving a delivery truck on State Highway 2, near Awatoto, when the vehicle veered from the road and crashed head-on into a large tree, trapping him in the cab soon after 3pm.
Bystanders had tried in vain to free Mr Bucknell while a nurse held his head and comforted him. He died at the scene despite paramedics' attempts to resuscitate him.
Mr Bucknell had been working as a logistics manager for Napier-based storage and shipping firm 3PL and was completing a delivery run when he inexplicably lost control of the truck, his mother and long-time Wairarapa teacher, Ruth Bucknell, said yesterday.
She and husband Cliff had travelled to Napier to be with Jesse's partner Ashleigh McAuley and the couple's son, Carter, who was Mr and Mrs Bucknell's first grandchild.
Jesse Bucknell was the eldest of four sons the couple had raised in Greytown and was an old boy of Greytown Primary School and Wairarapa College, she said.
He had been a leading regional triathlete, cyclist and multi-sport athlete, who was selected for the Triathlon New Zealand Youth Academy and the U19 New Zealand triathlete squad in 2006, finishing 17th in his grade at the International Triathlon Union World Championships in Switzerland that year.
Mrs Bucknell said her son was diagnosed in childhood as dyslexic and his early athletic talent had been encouraged "to help channel his energy". He began swimming and running and after "falling in love with it" had, as a 13-year-old, started cycling and triathlon competition.
He had successfully held jobs at several firms during his working life in Masterton and was always "synched in" with his social, work and sporting communities, she said. "He was was very well known and very well-liked. I doubt anyone would have a bad thing to say about him. He was just an all-around good guy."
Jesse had lived in Hawke's Bay for the past three years, she said, and three weeks ago had moved with his partner and son to a home the couple built at Parklands Estate at Paraiti near Napier.
Mrs Bucknell said her son was a high achiever, who had been beginning to reap the rewards of his hard work and planning.
"He gave up triathlon because he said he wanted a normal life, no hard training every day, a normal job, a girlfriend, a house, and that's what he set out to do," she said.
"He was so proud of his new son and home, and he was always positive and happy. We'd ring him up and ask how he was and he said he was living the dream. It was his new favourite saying."
Her son had last month applied for work as a forklift operator at two companies in Hawke's Bay and was offered a job at each of the firms on Monday.
"He was out doing a delivery and was going under the speed limit when, for some reason, he veered off the road and into a large Norfolk pine tree. It was apparently a nice day and there was no rhyme or reason for it.
"Jesse was really fit and goes to the gym for two hours at 5.30 every morning, but of course they can't rule out a heart attack or a turn or something like that. It could have been his phone or anything," Mrs Bucknell said.
Police had recovered her son's phone from the crash wreckage, she said, and an autopsy was held in Wellington yesterday.
Hawke's Bay Road Policing Senior Sergeant Greg Brown said the serious crash unit was investigating with a focus on possible causes including driver fatigue, distraction, or a medical event.
A funeral service for Jesse Bucknell will be held in Wairarapa and he would be buried in Hawke's Bay, his mother said. A fundraising campaign had been launched on the Givealittle site to help and support Ms McAuley and her son
By Nathan Crombie of the Wairarapa Times-Age
