Hackettstown Mother, UPS Driver Killed On Job By Fallen Tree

HACKETTSTOWN, NJ — Hackettstown resident Matty Auer is being remembered by friends, colleagues and the communities where she served as a UPS driver for her smile, friendliness and for being “the life of the party.”

The beloved mother of three was tragically killed while making deliveries this past Saturday in Vernon, when a tree uprooted and hit her delivery truck as she was driving by it.

Auer, 49, who will be laid to rest on Friday, became trapped in her truck after the tree fell, with the Vernon Township Police Department, multiple fire departments and rescue squads and a tree service working to free her.

Initially reported as a “motor vehicle crash,” police shut down Sleepy Hollow Road temporarily after the call came in at about 12:20 p.m. on July 3.

When crews were able to get Auer out of her truck, she was medevaced to Morristown Medical Center where Vernon Police say she later died from her injuries.

According to her obituary, Auer was also the mother of Emily, Christopher and Michael Auer.

Auer, who was based in Budd Lake’s UPS facility, was a familiar face in the Vernon neighborhood, about 30 miles and an hour’s ride from the center where she worked, with one resident in Vernon remembering her on one of the police department’s Facebook posts about the incident, for her “beautiful smile on her face,” as Auer made deliveries in their neighborhood.

Members from the center where Auer worked also posted online tributes to her.

The Facebook Page, “UPS Dogs,” celebrating the bond that can be formed between UPS drivers and some dogs they meet along their routes, also posted about Auer.

“Yesterday, we tragically lost one of our sisters in brown,” the tribute read. “My coworker and friend Matty Auer died while on route when a tree fell onto her truck.”

“She was so proud to be a UPS driver and will be missed beyond measure,” they also wrote, along with posting a photo of a smiling Auer in her uniform.

A GoFundMe fundraiser set up by a family friend on Sunday for medical and funeral expenses has raised close to $28,000 as of Tuesday.

Auer’s obituary asks that donations be made in her memory to Father John’s Animal House in Lafayette and Hackettstown’s Tri-County Volunteer Fire Company.

A visitation for Auer has been scheduled on Thursday from 4:30 to 8 p.m. at Cochran Funeral Home on 905 High Street in Hackettstown. A funeral mass is planned for Friday at 11 a.m. at Our Lady of the Mountain Roman Catholic Church at 2 East Springtown Road in Long Valley, with the burial to follow at Hackettstown Union Cemetery.

Questions or comments about this story? Have a news tip? Contact me at jennifer.miller@patch.com