Updated: Wed Oct. 21 2009 7:04:24 PM

ctvtoronto.ca

A 54-year-old Toronto tow truck operator is dead following an accident on Weston Road.

The driver had stopped in a live lane near Fenmar Drive in the city's far northwest and gotten out of his vehicle at about 1 p.m.

A van, which had been travelling in the same direction, slammed into the tow truck. The driver was pinned between the two vehicles.

Paramedics could not revive him and they declared him dead at the scene.

"The cube van, southbound, apparently didn't see him, wasn't paying attention or was distracted for some reason," Const. Hugh Smith of the Toronto Police Service's traffic unit told CTV Toronto. "He came over that ridge and basically ran into the back of the vehicle."

Police told reporters that speed and alcohol aren't factors in the incident. While the roads were a bit damp, they also don't think road conditions caused the crash.

Charges may yet be laid against the 24-year-old driver of the cube van, they said.

Traffic in the area finally resumed flowing about 5 p.m.

Friends and business associates of the dead driver say the man, originally from Ethiopia, was a nice family man who worked hard.

With a report from CTV Toronto's Jim Junkin