Worker dragged by truck in gas-and-dash incident

A gas station employee was treated for minor injuries after being dragged Wednesday afternoon by a truck while attempting to stop a gas-and-dash at a Rimbey Shell station.

About 2:30 p.m., a man in a white Dodge pickup filled up a fuel tank in the box of the truck with $300 worth of gas and then drove off without paying. The employee tried to stop the theft was dragged on the ground for a short distance.

The employee was treated and released from hospital.

The suspect is a man in his 30s with a dyed red mohawk. He was wearing black sunglasses and blue jeans. The pickup has a black sticker stripe package on the hood, a red fuel tank in the back and was covered in mud and dust.

Rimbey is about 145 kilometres southwest of Edmonton.

The safety of employees at gas stations and convenience stores has been the subject of public debate and calls for legislative action.

Following the death of one of its Calgary employees who attempted to stop a June 2015 gas-and-dash, Centex Petroleum said it would implement pay-at-the-pump systems at all its corporately owned gas stations. The death also prompted the Alberta Federation of Labour and Alberta Association of Chiefs of Police Chiefs to call for legislation requiring drivers to pay before filling up.

In Edmonton, safety of convenience store workers was brought to the fore following the murder of two Mac’s workers last December.

In response, the Alberta government began a three-month blitz of convenience store inspections. Occupational health and safety inspectors planned to visit roughly 200 stand-alone convenience stores and stores attached to gas stations as they examine issues such as paycheque deductions, employing young workers, working alone and workplace violence.