A fatal wreck Friday morning took a father and business owner away from the community he loved.

About 9 a.m. Friday, Kent Rabb’s gray Chevrolet truck swung across all three lanes of U.S. Route 58 westbound near the Hampton Roads Executive Airport and struck a tree.

Rabb, 44, of Suffolk, died at the scene, Suffolk spokeswoman Debbie George said.

Rabb owned Rabb’s Septic Services and was member of Queen Street Baptist Church in Norfolk.

“He was — and is to an extent — one of the most compassionate, caring and considerate people you’d ever meet,” said Robert Stephens, who participated in a prayer group five days a week with Rabb. “When my son was in Richmond as a page, he would always lift him up in prayer — just out of the blue. That’s the kind of guy he was. He’d gone through his own challenges and was reinventing himself and moving forward with life.”

Stephens said Rabb left behind a young daughter and was recently divorced.

There were no other occupants in the truck and no other vehicles were involved, George said.

The accident, which happened shortly before 9 a.m., tied up traffic along the busy highway for nearly five hours — extending as far back as the Bowers Hill interchange — as crews worked to investigate and clear the accident.

Suffolk Police are continuing to investigate what caused the accident.