A tow-truck driver was killed on the job in a road collision that occurred early in the morning on Aug. 29, on the Trans-Canada Highway near Strathmore, Alta.

A media release from the Alberta RCMP stated that the tow truck and a tractor-trailer unit had both been moving westbound on the highway when the former vehicle had struck the rear of the latter. The collision set the tow truck on fire, police said.

“The 44-year-old driver of the tow truck was deceased on scene,” the release stated. “The driver of the semi-truck did not incur any injury. There were no other occupants in the vehicles.”

RCMP officers from the Strathmore detachment were dispatched to the accident scene at 3:51 a.m. Traffic on the highway was temporarily diverted to allow responders to secure goods from the tractor-trailer unit. A collision analyst with the RCMP also attended the scene.

Both the police and the occupational health and safety division of Alberta Labour are investigating the accident.

“Both the driver of the tow truck and the driver of the tractor-trailer unit were actively at work at the time of the collision,” explained Trent Bancarz, a spokesperson for Alberta Labour. “So that’s why we would be investigating as well. But for right now, the RCMP is pretty much leading it.”

Local media reports have stated that the tow-truck driver was from Wheatland County, a municipal district near Calgary, but Bancarz could not confirm this. In addition, the tractor-trailer unit reportedly also caught on fire in the accident, with the flames engulfing many of the goods in the back of the vehicle.

Strathmore is part of Wheatland County, roughly 50 kilometres east of Calgary.