TowNews

Tow truck driver helps rescue Wyoming crash victim GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Tow truck operator Brandon Dexter sprung to action and played a pivotal part in saving a life after a speeding vehicle crashed into a Wyoming home. “Couple of drivers and I were talking before all of this and like, ‘It’s going to be another slow, dead night,'” said Dexter, a tow truck operator at Merl’s Towing Service in Wyoming. “We were planning on just washing trucks, doing little things around here just to stay busy.” Thanksgiving had just wrapped up. And then his shift took a turn. “It was a case of ‘I have to hurry,'” he said. A vehicle flew across Clyde Park Avenue around 1:30 a.m. Friday, pinning an elderly man under it while he was in bed. Firefighters, police and Dexter all worked together. He backed one of his most heavy-duty tow trucks to the house, and a hole was drilled through the roof for the crane, allowing first responders to lift the vehicle. “Between radio, him, coming down to me to lift, stop, lower — that kind of thing,” said Dexter. “The fact that (the victim)’s still alive right now — it’s an amazing feeling.” It was hardly the expectation when he started his shift, but it’s a night he will keep with him for the rest of his life. “The fact that he was pinned under there for so long was enough to make you cringe just thinking about it,” he said. “Because if it was any one of your loved ones, you’d definitely want everybody to do whatever they could to get him out.” As of Saturday night, there has been no update on the victim’s condition, and he remains in the hospital with serious injuries. RESOURCE LINK with video

Driver ejected, but survives fiery rear-end crash that closed I-75 Detroit — A 33-year-old Detroit man is in critical condition after he was ejected from his vehicle in a crash Tuesday afternoon on Interstate 75, which closed the freeway through evening rush hour. Michigan State Police responded to northbound I-75 at Mack, on Detroit's east side, around 1 p.m. A flatbed tow truck had been rear-ended, police learned, by a vehicle that was "driving recklessly" on the north side of the freeway. On impact, the driver of the car was ejected from his vehicle. Then, his vehicle caught fire. Medics transported the victim from the scene of the crash to a hospital, where he is listed in critical condition. Between investigating the crash and cleaning it up, the stretch of northbound I-75 remained closed until about 6:40 p.m. RESOURCE LINK

We have received a notification that a Tow Truck Operator in Texas has been injured. Sunday evening Issac Eaton wrote: Roughly 15 hours ago, two of my guys, Carlos and Derrick, were called to an accident on I-20 in Odessa. During the recovery, a Ford pickup clipped the front of or Peterbilt heavy flat bed, and then slammed into the back of Hercules, one of our rotators. It just missed Carlos, but unfortunately hit Derrick, who was at the drivers side control panel. Derrick was hit so hard, it knocked him out of his boots, and threw him down the road past the front of the rotator. He was transported and is banged up, and hopefully they can figure out the best care to get him past a few scary injuries. I have to say, he’s one tough man. Carlos called me almost immediately, and my dad and I jumped and airplane to head to Texas. I’m so grateful for a great bunch of guys who jumped in to help finish the call, and get the trucks home. I’m also grateful for the protection they received, as most of you know, this isn’t our first hard day. Everyone in our family had flashbacks to another difficult, and impossible day. I’m also grateful for the many phone calls, texts, messages, and concern that we all received. Our biggest concern was Derrick. Luckily we were able to talk to him. Continue to pray for him, and a speedy and full recovery. Thanks again, the Eaton Towing Family. UPDATE 11/29/20: Derrick, updated his statis on his Personal FB Page. "Just a friendly update on my recovery! Road rash is healing nicely! Bruising is starting to pop up in new places. And my mobility is slowly coming back. All in all I’d say I’m healing well. Thank you for all of your prayers and best wishes!"

Colorado Springs woman convicted in 2011 dragging death asks for early release, is denied COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Detra Farries, who was convicted in the 2011 dragging death of a Colorado Springs tow truck driver, has once again been denied early release from prison, according to the Fourth Judicial District Attorney’s Office. Farries, 42, was convicted in 2012 of reckless manslaughter and six other counts for the death of Allen Lew Rose. Rose was dragged over a mile after he became ensnared by a tow cable left dangling from Farries’ vehicle. According to prosecutors, Farries recently applied for placement in Araphaoe County’s community corrections. Thursday, the board announced her request had been denied. She remains in prison at the Denver Women’s Correctional Facility. This is at least the third time Farries has applied for early release. She was denied by community corrections boards in both Denver and Arapahoe counties in August 2018, according to previous reports. A corrections board initially approved her request for early release in October 2019, but later revoked that decision after opposition from the victim’s widow. Farries’ next parole hearing is set for March. Her mandatory release date is set for November 2028. RESOURCE LINK

Driver killed after crashing into tow truck on 15 freeway offramp in Hesperia HESPERIA, CALIF. (VVNG.COM) — The driver of a sedan was killed after crashing into the rear of a tow truck Friday morning. The collision occurred on the Main Street offramp of the northbound 15 freeway on November 20, 2020, at 9:56 a.m. and involved a white 2004 Acura and tow truck. San Bernardino County Fire and the California Highway Patrol responded to the collision and pronounced the driver deceased on scene. The driver of the tow truck was transported to a local hospital for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries. The Main Street offramp was shut down on the northbound 15 freeway as CHP officials investigated the collision. Authorities have not released the name of the deceased driver, pending investigation and notification of next of kin. This is a breaking news story, no further information was immediately available. Please check back for updates. RESOURCE LINK

City Accused Of Towing Vehicles Without Proper Warning The CBS 2 Investigators were the first to expose how the city towed and destroyed a woman's van with her wheelchair lift inside. As CBS 2 Investigator Dave Savini reports, it is all headed to federal court in a class action lawsuit that could cost the city millions.

Shots fired during theft of tow truck in northeast Las Vegas Las Vegas police said two men exchanged gunfire Tuesday night during the theft of a tow truck in northeast Las Vegas. Lt. David Gordon said a man emerged from his home in the 2700 block of Morning Meadow Court, near North Hollywood Boulevard and East Alto Avenue, when he observed a man sitting inside his father’s silver tow truck and another man in a white pickup nearby. The individual went back into his home and retrieved a handgun. He confronted the suspects, who immediately drove off. Police said the man in the white truck then opened fire, prompting the resident of the home to fire his handgun as well. No one was injured. The stolen tow truck was located in a neighborhood about four miles away. Police are investigating to try and identify the suspects. RESOURCE LINK

Gov. Larry Hogan announced stricter restrictions for visitations at hospitals and nursing homes, and new actions for restaurants and retail as coronavirus cases continue to spike in Maryland.

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine has announced a new curfew as the state faces a COVID-19 surge. The curfew will run from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. for three weeks starting Thursday, November 19. Watch his remarks.

Because of the surge in COVID cases throughout the state, Governor JB Pritzker issued more restrictions affecting everything from museums to retail spaces.

Tow Truck Driver Shot, Killed In Downtown LA Updated: Roadside assistance worker fatally shot while responding to call in downtown L.A. A tow truck driver was shot and killed while working on a stalled vehicle in the Fashion District of downtown Los Angeles Sunday night. A 26-year-old tow truck driver was shot and killed Sunday night while working on a stalled vehicle in downtown Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Police Department said. The shooting happened around 8:30 p.m. at 8th and Mateo streets, according to LAPD Officer Drake Madison. The victim and another driver were responding to a call in the area when a witness heard a shot and found the man bleeding, Madison said. The witness drove the man to the guard shack of the nearby Los Angeles Times Olympic printing plant, at 2000 E. 8th St., where he was pronounced dead. L.A. Times spokeswoman Hillary Manning said The Times' security team was at the plant at the time, as was the majority of the production team that is responsible for printing the newspaper. "We’re grateful to the security team for the work they do to keep our employees safe and, as in this situation, their efforts to assist members of the community," Manning said. "We send our condolences to the victim’s family and friends and hope that the investigation will bring them answers and that time will bring them peace." Police did not have any information about a suspect in the shooting Monday. The victim was identified by the Los Angeles County coroner's office as Michael McGarry. TowNews will continue to search for further details. updated: A roadside assistance worker was shot and killed while responding to a call for help in downtown Los Angeles Sunday night. The victim and a second roadside worker were called to jump start a stalled vehicle near the intersection of East Eighth and Mateo streets about 8:30 p.m. Sunday, a Los Angeles Police Department spokesperson said. The second worker heard gunshots and noticed his partner had been struck and was bleeding heavily. The two got back in their vehicle and drove to a nearby guard shack in the 2000 block of Eighth Street for help. Paramedics came and transported the victim to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The male victim, who police said was 26 years old, has not been identified. No description of the shooter, or shooters, was immediately available. Investigators have not determined a motive for the shooting and do not know if the victim was targeted. RESOURCE LINK

4,000 abandoned cars stacking up on Louisville streets called ‘an embarrassment’ LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) - Around 4,000 abandoned cars are sitting on Louisville’s streets right now, a backlog caused by COVID according to Louisville Metro Police officials, but it is a problem that has been there all along and started with LMPD’s impound lot. There have been thousands of calls made to Metro311 so far this year with people begging to tow cars that have been sitting smashed, stripped, graffitied, or burned, and left where they don’t need to be. LMPD Major Dave Allen told Metro Council members Tuesday the issue hasn’t been due to a lack of trying. “We were able to free up 100 spots over the weekend,” LMPD Major Major Dave Allen said. “We went to fill those back in yesterday.” LMPD’s impound lot has been a thorn in the department’s side for years. Per protocol, a towed car must be kept at the lot for 45 days as the owner is looked for before it can be scrapped or auctioned off. Many of the cars at the lot are being kept there are evidence from crime scenes. “When people call and say, ‘You have a law that [a car] is abandoned, it should be moved,’ what we have to say is, ‘Yes, but we have no place to put them,’” Councilman Bill Hollander said. “It’s really an embarrassment for the community.” The impound lot sits near the riverfront of Hollander’s 9th District, an old, unpaved, sinking landfill, bursting at the seams. “I don’t think, frankly, that on a hillside that drains into Beargrass Creek is the best place to put cars that are leaking fluids, but that’s really not the community’s biggest issue right now,” Hollander said. The issue is finding a new location for the lot. “We need to attack the problem in a real sense of urgency, and we need to understand that it’s got to be somewhere, and we need to understand that wherever we have a new impound lot or an additional impound lot, it’s not going to look like this,” Hollander explained. “We’re talking about something that’s appropriately screened, that’s paved.” The city has looked at around 50 properties, but only one was suitable and was just a bit out of budget: a $2 million 18 acre property off of Miller’s Lane. Until a solution to the problem is found, Louisville residents from the west to the east are growing wearing of cars piling up untouched. “In front of people’s residences and businesses, some of them on blocks, some of them have all their tires gone, windows broken,” Hollander said. “They’re eyesores, they’re dangerous. We need to get them off the streets.” RESOURCE LINK

Deadly I-75 Crash In Weston

When there’s a fire in New York City, 911 dispatch sends a team of firefighters. And when there’s a car crash, responders call for a tow truck and an ambulance. When when there’s a 911 call about an unstable individual posing harm to themselves or to others, New York City sends its law enforcement. But that might not be the case for much longer. In a statement made by the mayor’s office on Tuesday Morning, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a pilot program that would send counseling professionals to respond to 911-calls that are associated with mental health emergencies—instead of police officers. Per the current design of the pilot program, law-enforcement officers will not accompany the mental health professional to respond to the call. Instead, crisis workers who are trained in emergency response and crisis aversion will be first on the scene and will then decide if a situation requires backup. The pilot, which will initially be made up of health professionals and crisis workers from the New York City Fire Department Bureau, will debut in February of 2021. Before being implemented on a larger scale, the pilot is first being tested in two unspecified "high need" precincts. De Blasio sees this as an initiative designed to more adequately tailor emergency response to the nature of the crisis and prevent conflicts with police. "One in five New Yorkers struggle with a mental health condition," de Blasio said. "Now, more than ever, we must do everything we can to reach those people before crisis strikes." New York City's first lady Chirlane McCray spoke about the initiative. Although numbers of emergency mental health cases in the city have been on the decline for the better part of two years, New York still has one of the highest rates mental-health incidents in the country. The New York State Department of Health reports that medical services receive 650,000 mentally-troubled patients annually. Similarly, hospitalizations for extreme conditions such as schizophrenia and bi-polar disorder are 9.9 cases above the national average, per findings from the Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics. Not everyone believes de Blasio's plan will adequately—or safely—address the needs of a mental-health crisis situation. Patrick Lynch, President of the Police Benevolent Association in NYC released a response to the Mayor’s announcement, acknowledging the severity of mental health in the city, but voicing concerns that his plan would unnecessarily put people in harm's way. "Police officers know that we cannot single-handedly solve our city’s mental health disaster, but this plan will not do that either," Lynch said. "It will undoubtedly put our already-overtaxed EMS colleagues in dangerous situations without police support. We need a complete overhaul of the rest of our mental health care system, so that we can help people before they are in crisis, rather than just picking up the pieces afterward." Where de Blasio’s pilot is a new approach to mental health in New York, it’s not the first of its kind. Similar programs have been undertaken in cities such as Eugene, Ore., Albuquerque, NM, Denver, Colo., Los Angeles, and San Francisco, Cali. https://thepostmillennial.com/de-blasio-to-send-mental-health-professionals-on-nyc-911-calls

One dead after car slams into back of tow truck in southwest Houston, police say

Lamborghini turned submarine

WDM police: 1 officer, 1 man in hospital after crash on I-35 WEST DES MOINES, Iowa — A West Des Moines officer and a driver are in the hospital after a crash on I-35 early Sunday morning. A few minutes after midnight, authorities said Officer Jon Kaufman was standing next to a vehicle on I-35 northbound near the Westown Parkway overpass. Police had previous arrested the driver of the vehicle with an OWI. The West Des Moines Police Department said Kaufman was waiting on a tow truck when another vehicle collided with Kaufman's patrol vehicle. Police said the second vehicle was being driven by John Schwartz of Kellogg. Kaufman was taken to a local hospital with serious injuries. Schwartz was also taken to a hospital, but authorities do not know his condition. The Iowa State Patrol, West Des Moines Police Department and the Des Moines Police Department are investigating the crash. RESOURCE LINK with video

No Information: A DUI driver hit a tow truck which was doing a tire change on the freeway. No Other information accept the tow truck driver is not injuried.

HAMMOND, La. (BRPROUD) – The Hammond Police Department needs your help. Do you recognize the truck in the attached picture? Hammond PD describes the vehicle this way, “an older model truck, possibly a green Mazda B2300.” Officials believe the suspect in this case is a white male. Hammond PD says a Big Wheel Wrecker was taken from 42241 S Morrison Blvd. on October 21. Officers made contact with “the complainant who said that during the prior weekend someone had entered the parking lot and removed two catalytic converters from vehicles parked at the business,” according to the Hammond Police Department. If you recognize the truck in the picture, please call Detective Ronney Domiano (985-277-5739 or Domiano_RJ@hammond.org), with the Hammond Police Department’s Criminal Investigation Division, by the Hammond Police Department’s Facebook Page, or by contacting Crime Stoppers of Tangipahoa’s anonymous tip line at 1-800-554-5245. RESOURCE LINK Hammond Police Department Press Release: On October 21, 2020, the Hammond Police Department responded to a theft report at Big Wheel Wrecker located at 42241 S Morrison Blvd. Upon arrival officers met with the complainant who said that during the prior weekend someone had entered the parking lot and removed two catalytic converters from vehicles parked at the business. The complaint advised the incident was recorded on security video. Video showed the suspect to be a white male driving an older model truck, possibly a green Mazda B2300. Anyone knowing the identity of the suspect or with information about this incident is asked to contact Detective Ronney Domiano (985-277-5739 or Domiano_RJ@hammond.org), with the Hammond Police Department’s Criminal Investigation Division, by the Hammond Police Department’s Facebook Page, or by contacting Crime Stoppers of Tangipahoa’s anonymous tip line at 1-800-554-5245. Be a part of the solution and you may be eligible for a cash reward.