'I love you, bro!' Family, tow industry pay tribute to the operator killed during Monday's snowstorm

Family members and tow-truck operators gathered in Ottawa to honour one of their own, struck and killed while helping a driver during Monday's winter snowstorm.

Approximately 100 operators formed a convoy along the Queensway, from Coventry Road to the Canadian Tire Centre, to remember Phillip Smith on Thursday, and to remind motorists to move over for tow trucks and emergency vehicles.

The 33-year-old was struck and killed on Hwy. 417 on Monday afternoon under the White Lake Road overpass. Police say a westbound snowplow struck the tow truck operator while he was helping another driver.

“It’s heartbreaking, it really is,” Smith’s brother, Sebastian Smith tells CTV News Ottawa. "I love this turnout, my brother would love it; he would do the exact same."

Smith was surrounded by family and other tow operators.

"Love you bro."

The tragedy, affecting those in the tow industry and co-workers.

"You know, it touched me personally because he left me on Innes Road, going for this call; it could have been me, it could have been any of us," Charles Ajayi, a tow operator, said. "He just passed beside me, put on his beacon lights, ‘Charles, I’ll see you man,’ and that was the end. It’s scary man."

The ride was organized to pay tribute; but, also, to raise awareness of Ontario's 'Slow Down/Move Over' law.

“We’re out here, helping stranded motorists, in the worst of weather, in the worst of conditions," says Junior Latreille, organizer, who also runs a tow operator group on Facebook called 613-Wrecked. "We’re out there, for hours, just trying to make sure that everybody gets home safe at the end of the day,”

Under the Highway Traffic Act, all drivers are required to slow down and move over for emergency vehicles with its emergency lights activated. The law also includes tow trucks parked on the roadside with their amber lights flashing.

The circumstances of Monday's crash remain under investigation.

With files from CTV’s Dylan Dyson