fenderbendr6

Great job, but I'm wondering about the bathtub?

Our thoughts & prayers.

Our prayers and condolences to the family.

My condolences to the family.

There is no excuse for this kind of stupidity. Two lives lost because somebody believed he couldn't afford the little bit of extra time to drive safely, and obey the law. This company, and the families involved will deal with this needless tragedy forever.

In my opinion, this is not an accident. It was a deliberate act, with no regard for the consequences. I can only hope that The Montana Tow Truck Assn. will step up and hold some feet to the fire. We don't need any more incidents making headlines, then just going away.

Thought & prayers to the family.

Thoughts and prayers.

As Grumps stated, I have always treated Geico the same as all the other motor clubs, credit card up front at commercial rate only. A couple weeks ago, I had a dispatcher take the time to explain how their PO/billing system works. I decided to take a chance, quoted commercial rate and accepted a PO. I submitted an invoice online and requested to be paid by check, instead of giving them access to my bank account for a direct deposit. The check arrived within a week for the correct amount. I have to admit I am impressed.

Keep in mind that I do not have a contract, and have no intention of even talking to them about that, but it seems that they do pay their PO's promptly.

Thoughts and prayers.

Geico, last week. The dispatch was amazingly accurate and they paid my regular rate.

I had a police rotation call last month for a Subaru broke down on I90 10 miles from my shop. The driver, a woman traveling alone had tried to use her roadside assistance to arrange a 38 mile tow to the nearest dealer. After about 2 hours, Urgently told her they could not provide service and suggested she call 911. When I arrived 30 minutes later, the deputy was still on scene because it was nearly dark and the woman was nervous about being alone on the highway.

After I loaded the car and was on the way to the dealership, she explained that Urgently had informed her that she was only covered for a 28 mile tow and made her pay $104.00 over the phone for the extra 10 miles before they would help her. So they charged her over $10.00 per mile for over mileage and then failed to provide service. I wrote a receipt for the tow, and told her she should apply for reimbursement and demand her $104.00 back as well.

I was thinking at the time about how they were using this outrageous up front payment as a way to profit from the call, as they would never pay a contractor $10.00 per mile, but it gets better yet. I got a call from the woman's insurance agent the next day, asking why I had double billed this tow. When the woman asked her agent about reimbursement, the agent called Urgently and they told her they had dispatched me and paid me for the call, including the $104.00 additional fee. I set the agent straight about what really happened. Hopefully the woman got her reimbursement.

In many cases it comes down to available manpower. TIMS training has really helped here in Montana. Our Highway Patrol troopers are doing a great job of watching our back on crash scenes, but it is not always possible for them to stick around because they are spread pretty thin here. Montana law prevents us from picking up a wrecked vehicle until the crash has been investigated by MHP. The upside of this is that there is almost always a trooper on scene when we arrive.

No different than any other recovery. Billed at hourly rate for any necessary equipment.

Seems like a light sentence for that long list of charges, but, at least it's something.

thoughts and prayers.

I always winch on. There are many stories about accidents, damaged vehicles and worse related to driving a vehicle onto the deck. One of the biggest dangers I see is getting out of a vehicle on a tilted deck. In addition to the slip & fall hazard, if the vehicle slides or rolls backward, that open door will get you. We learn from our mistakes, close calls, etc. We should be willing to learn from other people's mistakes, as well, so we don't have to learn the hard way!

Just saw the email. Is it too late?

Montana, social distancing since 1889!

Such a tragedy, we send our prayers.

NO!

Best wishes and prayers for a full recovery.

This is an example of the unintended consequences of motor clubs and insurance companies encouraging the public to rely on apps and internet for towing and emergency services instead of going through police dispatch.

Scammers are everywhere. How is a motorist to know that they need to be aware of a scam like this? This warning aired one time on the television news in Montana. How many potential victims did it actually reach?

I, like most other towers, have seen many instances when a motorist declined help from law enforcement when they needed a tow, because they wanted to rely on an app or 800 number to get help to them. They do this because they think their insurance won't cover the charges if they go out of network, or they think it will get them help faster. Quite often, we get the dispatch from law enforcement hours after the fact, when the consumer finally gets frustrated with the runaround, or start thinking about their safety.

I had several stumps about that size to remove last year in preparation to expand our impound yard. After realizing, as you did, that I would have to use two trucks to have enough anchor, and the time it took for all the rigging necessary to pull the first stump, I hired a local contractor to remove the rest of them with an excavator. I needed to use him to haul fill dirt and gravel to level the lot anyway. He did the whole job in a day. It would have taken me that much time just to pull the rest of the stumps.

As stated in previous posts, every situation is different, and there is really not enough information here for me to say exactly how I would perform this recovery. I will say that, after surveying the scene, I would formulate a plan, discuss it with the officer in charge and the other first responders on scene, and get it done. Best case scenario would be if the casualty was in the right lane with some shoulder to work in, but we have to adapt to whatever we are handed.

R.I.P. so sorry to hear this.