BY JOSEPH B. NADEAU

 WOONSOCKET – In the second such area incident in less than a day, a city man died Wednesday morning after being struck by a snowplow on Cumberland Street.

 “He was walking on Cumberland Street headed to work at the CVS warehouse and was walking in the road when a truck with a snowplow came by and hit him,” Dubois said.

 The driver of the black 2005 Chevy dump truck, Krzysztof Merga, 32, of 374 Tenth Ave., stopped immediately and sought help for the victim, Dubois said.

  Police arrived at the scene with rescue personnel and Boucher was transported to Landmark Medical Center where he was pronounced dead at 6:26 a.m., Dubois said.

 Blackstone Police on Wednesday were still looking for the operator of a white Ford F-series-style pick up truck with a yellow plow that is alleged to have struck a 50-year-old woman as she walked on Blackstone Street at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday. .

 Police identified the victim of that accident as Rita M. Plante of 17 Blackstone St., the mother of five grown children and a longtime employee of the Dean Bank at Park-N-Shop plaza on Main Street. She died of injuries suffered in the accident while being transported to Rhode Island Hospital in Providence, according to police.

  After the plow struck Plante, a car following behind and operated by a Blackstone woman struck her a second time. The pick-up truck left the scene while the second vehicle’s operator stopped to lend assistance, according to police. Plante is believed to have been walking in the road due to the snow and ice conditions on Blackstone Street, according to police.

 Blackstone Police Chief Ross A. Atstupenas said his department has been getting calls about potential leads in the case and was continuing to check them out Wednesday.

 “We’ve been checking them out but haven’t come up with anything so far,” he said. “We do appreciate the help we’ve been getting,” Atstupenas added and encouraged people to call if they think they have any information about the Blackstone Street accident.

 Police already have information that the pick up truck did stop briefly before leaving the area, he said.

“I would make a guess that they did know they hit something or hit a person,” he said. Police will not know exactly what happened until that person comes forward or is identified, he added.

 In the Woonsocket accident Wednesday Merga’s dump truck plow was listed as owned by K&K Masonry and was setup to do private plowing and sanding, according to Dubois.

Because of the vehicle’s size and equipment, Dubois said police contacted the State Police commercial enforcement unit to conduct an inspection of the truck.

 The vehicle was found to exceed the 8-foot wide plow limit by two feet and the truck’s load the weight limit by 400 pounds.

 The truck had an attached sanding unit as well as a cargo of sand when the accident occurred, Dubois noted.

 Although two commercial truck infractions were found, Dubois said it not been determined Wednesday if plow length and weight differences were factors in the accident.

 Boucher was struck by the outlying corner of the plow but Dubois said it was not known if the added length contributed to the accident.

 Merga and the operator of a second vehicle, following just behind in the far lane of the two southbound travel lanes, both told police they had not seen the victim until after he was struck, Dubois said.

 The second motorist also stopped to await police at the scene, he said, and confirmed Merga’s statements about the accident, he said.

 Merga was distraught and very shaken at the scene, Dubois said.

“He claimed he never saw the person in the road and only knew he had hit something when he felt the impact, stopped, and looked behind, Dubois said.

Police Chief Michael L. A. Houle described the accident as a “tragedy” and noted the early morning hour in darkness, Boucher’s dark clothing, and the heavy accumulation of snow and ice throughout the area may all have been contributing factors.

“It’s just an unfortunate, tragic situation and our hearts go out to the victim’s family,” Houle said.

 Boucher was listed by police as a longtime employee of the CVS Warehouse. He did not own a car, according to Dubois, and made it his regular routine to walk to work from the Manor where his 70-year-old father also resides.

 The city is currently in the process of removing snow from sidewalks along the city’s main thoroughfares but had not yet reached that area of Cumberland Street. The sidewalks along major roads are clear on schedule setting areas around city schools as a first priority and key business areas as the next clearing goal, he noted.

 Hard-packed snow and ice conditions have forced people to walk in the street in many areas of the city while the clean up continues, he said.

 “There just isn’t any place for people to walk,” Houle said.

 A similar accident in which a pedestrian walking the opposite side of Cumberland Street was struck by a vehicle and killed a number of years ago ended up prompting sidewalk improvements at the location. The widened section of sidewalk was also snow and ice-clogged Wednesday.