About 100 tow trucks are expected to take to two highways in Saskatchewan’s southeast next weekend to honour a driver killed in a four-vehicle crash.
The drivers will be leading a procession into Esterhazy on March 18 ahead of a funeral service for Courtney Schaefer.
“Lots of my friends have been hit on the highway. This is the first fatality that has really hit home for me,” said Dallas Baillie, who runs Baillie Boys Towing out of Yorkton and Abernethy. The company was one of two Saskatchewan towing businesses to confirm Schaefer’s identity as the victim in Tuesday’s fatal crash on Highway 22 in southeastern Saskatchewan.
RCMP said the crash involved a tow truck, a semi and two other vehicles.
The procession will see two different groups of drivers, one starting in Yorkton and one starting in Whitewood, meet at the Highway 9 and Highway 22 junction, near Stockholm. The groups will then proceed into Esterhazy, where Schaefer Brothers Towing is based, Baillie said.
Regina-based Trevor’s Towing and Recovery said about 100 drivers are expected to take part in the drive. Baillie felt comfortable with that estimate.
“It should be a good showing of respect,” Baillie said, noting drivers from across Saskatchewan and even some in Manitoba are planning to attend.
Schaefer was a father and husband and last year won a CAA Saskatchewan Roadside Assistance Award of Excellence.
His death hits especially close to home for Baillie because his company is a family business.
“My business is all run by family. I’m sending my sons out, on the same conditions, to go out and save other people that have run into trouble on the road,” Baillie said. “It kind of makes you think twice with sending your own family out because of the dangers that are out there.”
Baillie only met Schaefer once, but said tow-truck drivers are a close community.
“I’ve been in the towing business for 29 years and I don’t have competitors. I have a brotherhood,” he said.
Drivers are also in the early stages of planning a demonstration March 20 on Highway 1 to push the government to change tow-truck lights to red from amber and to implement penalties for motorists who do not slow down or move over when passing tow trucks.
Baillie stressed the rally is a separate event from the procession.
“What we are doing this coming Saturday is 100 per cent in honour and respect to our tow brother,” he said.
