If it was happening in Scugog, chances are Todd Burgess knew about it.

Cruising the local streets, first as a taxi driver before getting hooked on tow trucks, Burgess knew the community well from his perch behind the steering wheel. It was that love for helping others, however, that ultimately cost the 56-year-old his life.

On Friday, OPP identified Beverly Todd Burgess as the tow-truck operator killed last week after he was struck by a driver of a vehicle while helping another motorist out of a ditch just south of Port Perry.

“He’s the unofficial ‘Mayor of Port Perry,’ he knew what was going on and who was who and the local news and who moved into town. He knew everything,” said Brad Fenney, a fellow tow-truck driver and friend of Burgess’s for more than 15 years.

Fenney described his friend as someone with a “big heart, he’d help anybody out, no matter who they are. He was just genuine and he would talk to anyone.”

Burgess would spend his days either at a local Tim Hortons coffee shop, absorbing knowledge about the community, or park his truck at Vos’ Independent Grocer, waiting for his next call-out, Fenney said.

“Today, there’s no truck there,” Fenney said Friday afternoon.

Burgess was travelling along Highway 12, near the Scugog Line 2 intersection, on Thursday — during the first significant snowfall of the season — when he encountered a red car in the ditch. He called Fenney for help and the two soon began working on winching the vehicle out of the snow.

At some point, recalled Fenney, the driver of a silver car came racing along Highway 12 — “At a high speed, at a higher speed than what the rest (of the other vehicles) were going,” he said — and that’s when those gathered at the scene scattered to avoid being hit. One person jumped back on the road, another dove into the ditch and Fenney sprinted to the front of his truck.

But, “there was nowhere for (Burgess) to go,” said Fenney.

Burgess was struck by the driver and thrown about five metres into the ditch.

“It plowed right into him and tossed him into the ditch,” said Fenney. “I don’t think he saw it coming, it doesn’t look like he even turned his head.”

According to the OPP, the driver of the northbound vehicle that struck Burgess also began sliding out of control on the roadway that police on Thursday described as “snow-covered, slushy and icy.”

Moments after the collision, Fenney went to the edge of the ditch and called out to his friend. There was no reply.

“There was no life. He was dead,” Fenney said.

He says the driver of the silver car couldn’t have missed the original collision scene because the tow trucks on the side of the road were “lit up like Christmas trees. There was no way she couldn’t see the trucks.”

Later that evening, after Fenney joined police officers in notifying Burgess’s mother of his death — he recently moved into an Oshawa apartment with her — there was a tribute of sorts for the victim at the crash scene. About 20 tow trucks lined the roadway, with people lighting a candle, laying flowers and a shirt in Burgess’s memory and unfurling a banner.

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“He was really well-respected. He was an all-around amazing guy,” Fenney said of his friend. “It was a sad day (Thursday), that’s for sure.”

A graveside service for Burgess will be held at Bowmanville Cemetery on Wednesday, starting at 1 p.m. Following the interment, there’ll be a reception at the Garnet B. Rickard Centre from 2 to 4 p.m.

Fenney expects a large turnout — perhaps hundreds of tow trucks — to be on hand to send off a friend. Already, he added, condolences from the tow-truck community have been pouring in from across the country.

“He (towed) because he loved it,” said Fenney. “Unfortunately, it took his life.”

Following the collision, the OPP used Burgess’s death as a reminder to motorists that Ontario law requires drivers to slow down and move over when they encounter first-responder vehicles and tow trucks on the side of the road.

It’s a message Fenney stresses himself.

“Unfortunately, (to emphasize the law) this had to take a life,” he said. “It sucks.”

As a way to honour his friend, Fenney has set up a GoFundMe campaign to help Burgess’s mother cover her son’s funeral expenses. As of Tuesday afternoon, $16,610 had been donated — surpassing Fenney’s goal of $10,000.

The OPP have not announced any charges in relation to the fatal collision.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the Hospital for Sick Children.