AMA drivers urge caution after tow trucks hit on job

Tow-truck drivers are appealing to the public to drive carefully after a number of collisions and close calls on Alberta roadways.

“We do everything we can to alert the public to our presence at roadside, and are highly trained at clearing scenes quickly. But we need drivers to slow down, and move over if possible, to help keep everyone safe,” Brandon Klassen, spokesperson for the Alberta Motor Association (AMA), said Wednesday.

According to the AMA, in late December, as a tow truck was pulling a vehicle from the ditch on Whitemud Drive near the 149 Street exit, a white van speeding past lost control, hitting a patch of ice and ricocheting off the tow truck.

According to reports from witnesses, the van fled on two flat tires before being caught by police.

Police caught the driver near 119 Street and 51 Avenue after other drivers called in a complaint of a suspected impaired driver. Investigators later determined this was the same van involved in the hitand-run. The driver was arrested and charged.

On Saturday, Valleyview RCMP urged drivers to slow down and make extra room when passing tow trucks after a three-vehicle collision involved a tow truck that was stopped on the shoulder of Highway 49 and Township Road 720.

Police said the tow truck was loading a vehicle onto a flat deck around 8 p.m. Saturday when an SUV hit the tow truck, driving up the ramp and striking the vehicle being loaded.

The tow-truck driver was taken to hospital and treated for nonlife-threatening injuries.

The SUV driver was charged with careless driving.

According to the AMA, another tow truck was side-swiped in Ponoka on Saturday.

Around 5 p.m., a tow-truck operator was winching a vehicle out of a ditch on Highway 2A near Ponoka when his truck was side-swiped by a passing vehicle. Fortunately, no one was injured.

Drivers are required by law to slow down to at least 60 km/h — or less if the posted speed limit is lower — when passing emergency vehicles or tow trucks with their lights flashing.

The AMA is also asking drivers to move over a lane to give crews room to work.