A 24-year-old Chatham-based tow truck driver says he's lucky to be alive after a transport truck hit his vehicle on the Hwy. 401 near Ridgetown.
"We're all fortunate that we all walked out of this OK," Joseph Ouellette tells BlackburnNews.com.
He was working to pull a car out of the centre median of the highway near Kent Bridge Rd. in snowy conditions Wednesday night when his tow truck was hit.
"Three of us were standing by the car that I was about to recover when a semi driver came over to the left lane that was blocked and hit the rear passenger side of my tow truck," says Ouellette. "He went into the left lane and then went all the way over to the right into the ditch... I had all of my lights on and everything like that, so I don't understand why he hit me."
It's Oullette's first winter on the roads -- he just started driving a tow truck in July.
But even though he's only been on the road for about six months, Oullette says this isn't his first close call.
"We're always out there. We put ourselves in a dangerous situation to keep the highway open and get the vehicles out, but people just get too close," says Oullette. "With the exception of some people that actually do slow down, it's an extremely dangerous job that could have ended very badly last night."
Oullette, who has a fiancee, has a message for other drivers who might see tow trucks on the road.
"I would appreciate people slowing down and moving over when they see a tow truck," says Oullette. "Think about the people who have lost their lives due to negligence."
The 49-year-old man from St. Anne, Manitoba who was driving the tractor trailer that hit Oullette's tow truck is charged with impaired driving.
The crash shut down the eastbound lanes of the highway at Kent Bridge Rd. overnight, but no injuries were reported.