Death of woman hit by car stuns colleagues

A Remuera mother and grandmother who died after she was hit by a car outside an Auckland garden centre is being remembered as a vibrant, loving woman.

Jeanette Grice, who celebrated her 60th birthday in October, was at Palmers Garden Centre in Remuera when a car hit her and two other people on Sunday morning.

She was flung into a bush and died at the scene. Two other pedestrians were injured.

Grice was a saleswoman at Corso De’ Fiori, an interior design store in Newmarket, for more than a decade.

General manager Jeremy Willoughby said her colleagues were in shock at the loss of their “loving, vibrant, beautiful” workmate and friend.

Her workmates were upset but coping, he said.

Grice’s husband declined to comment yesterday, saying the family would prefer to grieve in private.

Cafe Greenfingers head chef Mehdi Soheili was in his cafe, at the intersection of Shore Rd and Orakei Rd, about 9am on Sunday when a member of the public ran in saying a group of people had been hit by a car outside Palmers Garden Centre.

“I just ran out and tried to do first aid as best as I could.”

He tried to calm the situation and called 111.

The woman who was fatally injured had been thrown into a nearby bush, he said, while two other people — a man and a woman — lay injured on the ground.

St John ambulance treated one person with moderate injuries and one with minor injuries.