A tire change on the 406 near Thorold took an ugly turn when a CAA Niagara truck was sideswiped this morning.
Vice President of Marketing & Public Relations for CAA Niagara Rick Mauro is thankful that in this incident everyone was able to walk away.
"Collectively across our organization this morning from the president to our service providers, we're breathing a sigh of relief that there were no major injuries involved in this incident, but it certainly puts a startle into us and reminds us that we need to be aware that this is a dangerous place for our drivers to be working and other drivers on the road need to give them a safe place to work."
A picture of the light duty truck involved in the accident shows a caved in bumper and missing tail light.
Mauro tells CKTB the driver was later taken to hospital by a friend when he started to complain of back pain.
"We're very fortunate in the incidents that we do see, but what our drivers do report is that there are a number of people who are not moving over and going into that other lane of traffic."
Although the CAA truck involved in this morning's incident is not covered by the Move Over legislation, OPP Sergeant Kerry Schmidt reminds drivers that lives are at stake.
"You are required by law when you see a stopped emergency vehicle or tow truck with their amber lights flashing or a police vehicle, fire, ambulance, with their red or red blue lights flashing - you are required to slow down when approaching, approach with caution and if there is a lane available, move over to give them a lane of safety." Schmidt says. "It should also be common courtesy for anybody to move over whenever there is a disabled vehicle at the side of the road because it can be absolutely terrifying with vehicles and trucks of all sizes driving by someone who is standing on a highway outside their vehicle with traffic going by at 100km/h or more."