A police officer with the Spirit River RCMP detachment questions a witness following a head-on collision near Rycroft Aug. 5 which killed veteran chuckwagon driver Herman Flad. Flad died after the tractor-trailer he was driving collided with a southbound pickup on Highway 2, 10 km east of Rycroft.

The professional chuckwagon circuit is mourning the loss of one of its own following the death of veteran driver Herman Flad in an automobile collision on Highway 2 near Rycroft last Tuesday. Herman Flad, age 68 and a colourful character who won several major titles in a career that spanned four decades, was killed on the afternoon of Aug. 5 at approximately 2:30 p.m. when his tractor trailer carrying 15 horses collided head-on with a pickup truck 10 km south of Rycroft. Flad, on his way to a chuckwagon tour stop in Dawson Creek, B.C., was heading north on the highway when the crash occurred, killing all but one of his horses. The unidentified pickup driver was airlifted by STARS Air Ambulance to an Edmonton hospital, while a child also in the truck was uninjured. Spirit River RCMP say one of the vehicles crossed the centre line, but couldn’t immediately determine which one was at fault. According to the Calgary Herald, Flad was apparently looking at retiring after this year’s tour, something that made his death harder for those who knew him. “He certainly made his mark on chuckwagon racing,” says Billy Melville, a chuckwagon historian who also does colour commentary on the Chuckwagon Radio Network. “He won all the big shows.” He will also be remembered for his often outrageous sense of humour, Melville said. Flad, who ran a farm in Bodo, 280 kilometres northeast of Calgary near the Saskatchewan border, collected several crowns since first picking up the chuckwagon reins in 1972. He won several major and prestigious chuckwagon events including the inaugural WPCA Pro Tour Championship, the Calgary Stampede Rangeland Derby in 1980, the Grande Prairie Stompede, the Klondike Chuckwagon Derby and twice won the Cheyenne Frontier Days championship. Flad, who also won the Grande Prairie Stompede in 1998 and finished atop Edmonton’s Klondike Chuckwagon Derby in 2001, was also the inaugural champion of the World Professional Chuckwagon Association’s pro tour in 1998. RCMP are currently investigating the cause of the collision. It is believed that alcohol was not a factor in the collision.