Along Fourth Street Sunday morning, just before the bridge to I-275 northbound, dozens of tow truck drivers and their wreckers lined up to pay tribute to a fallen brother.

“He was a good Samaritan, a good tow truck driver,” Johnny Bigger said.

Roger Perez-Boroto died two weeks ago on the Howard Frankland Bridge. The tow-truck driver had pulled over to help a stranded couple when he was struck by a hit-and-run driver. Roger died at the scene.

According to the Florida Highway Patrol, Allison Huffman was driving the car that hit and killed Roger. She’s currently being held at the Hillsborough County Jail and she faces a charge of leaving the scene of a crash involving a death.

Roger’s sister Zarais came up from Miami to attend the tow truck memorial. She said the family is still struggling with Roger’s death.

“It’s still very surreal,” she said. “You have moments where it doesn’t dawn on you and then there are those brief moments of silence when you go to bed that your mind starts to wander off.”

“It feels like you got hit by a train,” she said.

The towing community is coming together and rallying around the family. That support has been instrumental in easing the family’s grief.

“People who didn’t even know Roger have extended their hands and called the family,” she said.

For these drivers – it’s a story they hear all too often.

Carl Brittin drove his Blue Diamond Towing truck in the Sunday caravan. He said he was destined to be a wrecker driver.

“My mom’s water broke actually in Ward’s Towing tow truck in New Port Richey,” he said.

Brittin was working a double accident scene on US-19 almost two years ago when his coworker was hit and killed.

“A very important woman in my life, Denise Gajus, was taken from me right on the corner of US-19 and Alternate 19,” he said. “It’s the worse thing I could ever see in my life. From day to day I fight to get back into a tow truck for fear that I might not be able to come home to my family.”

Gajus’s and Roger’s death are more examples of people not following the “Move Over” law, these drivers said. Florida law mandates that drivers must move over a lane when an emergency vehicle is pulled over.

“They don’t want to move over,” Bigger said. “They have no respect for tow truck drivers.”

Bigger is a third-generation tow truck driver. He said every day on the road is dangerous.

“I’ve been on scene with highway patrol when they’ve been hit by a mirror,” he said. “We’ve had to jump out of the way of cars.”

The drivers got in their trucks and drove onto the Howard Frankland Bridge. In a line that seemed to never end, the tow trucks followed nose to crane. As they passed mile marker 36, where Roger was killed, they honked their horns.

The truckers want to be heard. Roger’s family does, too.

“Just be cautious, be alert, keep the eyes open,” Zarais said. “A life is a life and when it’s gone, there’s no way of getting that back.”

PREVIOUS STORY: Police: Howard Frankland hit-and-run suspect admits to being driver