The old adage and slogan that many in our towing profession have used is You put it in, we’ll pull it out. More over getting big things out of tiny places is one of our skills, but daily transport and piloting of roads, highways, even city streets can be a real eye opener.
Recently I heard of a cop riding in a tow truck for a full 12 on, 12 off schedule. Some local policies were changed, and fines levied against people that do not use caution approaching a tow scene. Utah for years has been a place of having the 7th highest fatality rate amongst drivers, and the number 3 rudest drivers in the nation. Only Florida and California topped the list.
But it’s a nationwide epidemic.
There is now a memorial wall near Chattanooga Tennessee for our lost tow brothers and sisters who have lost their lives doing our jobs. Milli inches of space between 70 mile per hour traffic and us hooking up a disabled vehicle.
While Utah and Idaho Law does exist for drivers to move over and give due caution coming up on a tow truck doing its duty, few if any law enforcement officers ever really give the serious citations required or deserved here. Utah Highway Patrol, could give citations for Improper LookOut or as it is in Idaho , Reckless Driving. Both are Class B Misdemeanors. With heavy fines, jail time. Trouble is few are issued .
Some say its not worth the time, others say its no big deal. What is a life worth? Just like this morning, I’m backing in my rollback to retrieve a rig, and here comes a UTA bus running at 45 plus mph through a residential neighborhood. Nearly T-boning me. Overhead lights flashing, but here comes Johnny UTA driver, sure I know he’s got a schedule to keep, but. My life is worth living. The response from UTA? Who cares? They said.
Simple courtesy is all it takes. Sure not at all times can one move over one lane or half a lane. But slowing down, to a near crawl, approaching a accident or road rescue scene would really keep a few of us alive.
It is estimated with acute accuracy that for every 10 vehicles out there , there is 5 tow truck drivers doing some sort of road rescue duty , out of that 5 tow truck professionals, 3 get killed or seriously injured because of careless drivers.
Here’s a personal example. 6 years ago, working a scene out on I-80 west of Tooele Utah. Had my foot barely in the travel lane of lane 1. Here came a Toyota sedan ran right over my foot. While it healed and all, it still smarts. I was hooking under the vehicle, but I could hear the crunch. Felt it even worse. Secondly and this was even worse. Was working two slide offs near Draper, on I-15 going southbound. Fortunately my project was in front. One of Jim’s Tow Smith trucks was hooking up a wreck behind me. Lights on top flashing and all, yet here came a speeding car, smacked the wrecked vehicle in the rear, pushed the to be towed vehicle into the rear of the tow truck. Crushing the driver of Tow Smith’s. The tow driver dead at the scene. Here’s an idea drivers slow the hell down. Watch what’s in front. More importantly move over.
To which, the Toew Bro’s Club, in co-operation with the Rode Knytes(Knights) Towing Association of America, is looking to get some ads put together to begin airing this winter. It’s a major undertaking, but the project is to educate the public to just how close they come to us on an hourly basis on a daily commute.
The other part is to wake up a few UHP officers to the situation , that if you have to leave us after calling us out, if you see or we report an incident of a not looking out, or no move over, give some stiff tickets and fines. We are hoping that we can get a news department interested as well.
The ad’s will begin running on METV ch 104 Utah, and on the news on CH-4Utah.
TTYLY
Quote of the Day:
Behavior is a mirror in which every one displays his own image.
--Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
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