Tributes for truck driver

’We all loved Justin and thought the world of him’

THE truck driver killed on Monday afternoon when a road-train rolled near Taroom has been remembered as a “genuinely nice bloke”.

Forest Hill man Justin Kieth Kay, 38, (pictured) had previously escaped death in a terrifying incident that ended with an armed man shot dead by police.

On Monday he was driving on the Leichhardt Highway, 15 kilometres north of Taroom, when his truck left the carriageway and rolled.

He was declared dead at the scene.

Mr Kay had a long history of driving trucks, and had been working for his most recent employer, Patons Transport and Logistics, for almost 12 months.

“He was quiet but just really well-liked in the group. nobody had a bad word to say about him,” a colleague said.

“He was one of those truck drivers who was just a genuinely nice bloke and who fitted in really well.

“We all loved Justin and thought the world of him.

“It’s a tragedy.” Relative Reece Jade wrote in a tribute online that Mr Kay was “taken too soon”.

“Fly high with your two sisters,” she wrote on social media.

Almost three years ago, Mr Kay and his partner Thresa Holmes had their lives threatened during a terrifying incident at their Grafton duplex.

Christopher Peter McGrail was fatally shot by police on August 6, 2017, when he lunged at an officer while holding a large kitchen knife, a coroner’s inquest into his death found.

Mr McGrail had arrived at the duplex earlier that afternoon under the effects of methamphetamine and alcohol intoxication, and engaged in a violent rampage.

The inquest heard Mr McGrail had picked up the bottle and knife and a shirt with one hand and said to Mr Kay, “This is it. Are you ready to die?”.

Mr McGrail had also raised the hammer above his head and said to Ms Holmes, “Today is the day you’re going to die.” The inquest into Mr McGrail’s death was closed last month.