Schmitty30

On the morning of Wednesday September 10, 2014 around 10:00am, we received a call from the Ohio Turnpike for an overturned commercial completely blocking the westbound lanes at the 154 mile marker. Not knowing any more details than that, we immediately responded with one of our 60 ton rotators, our 1050, our air cushion recovery trailer, and our fuel recovery unit on our service truck.

 

Once on scene, we met with fire and turnpike personnel and devised a plan to quickly and safely reopen the road way. The commercial was a tandem axle day cab tractor pulling a set of double pup trailers. One of our mechanics disconnected the batteries while our recovery team began rigging to drag everything into the center wall. Within 30 minutes we had the shoulder reopened to allow traffic to begin to flow. The fire department had thrown oil dry to contain any leaks, so after the truck was moved, our operators swept the first and second lanes of all debris and oil dry and placed it in containment drums to be disposed of properly.  As the truck was being moved, our second rotator arrived from a previous call he was on. 

 

Once the commercial was moved to the inside shoulder and the roadway was cleared, we reopened two lanes of traffic while our heavy recovery team prepared the air cushions. The truck was uprighted and cleared from the scene. Due to the lack of integrity of the pintle assembly between the trailers, we opted to separate the trailers and upright them individually. Our single axle dolly convertor was brought in and placed on the front trailer. Both the front and rear convertors were chained in place and cushions were spotted under the load. Using the rotators and air cushions, we first uprighted the front trailer then the second, using our landing cushions to safely catch each trailer. Once upright, both trailers were secured for tow and removed from the scene. The roadway was then cleaned and the final lane was reopened. 

 

We were clear at  approximately 2:30pm.

 

Thanks for looking and as always,

 

BE SAFE!!!

 

 

 

dsummers  said:

Great job.

 

In Memory of NationalAutow  who said:

Not only was this recovery expertly (safely and efficiently) performed it was also very well documented.

Congrats to your entire team for a job well done.

 

OLDTOW   said:

 

Alied61 said:

was sitting in traffic about a mile back on my way back from youngstown great job good looking equipment

 

Silverhawk  said:

Got my guts a little tight seeing the front end of the tator that close to the trailer.  Thanks, again.

 

Gale25yrs said:

excellent presentation but I am curious to how much weight was in each trailer

 

Foxtow82 said:

Nice job guys! Tators, teamwork, bags, headsets, landing cushions..........1st Class and.......bye for now BFS!!!

JARED

 

In Memory of PlanBTransport who said:

Nice job, plenty of photos, great looking team. I have one question, since you were working in a single lane, is traffic normally passing the casualty while doing the roll over? I saw the catch bags, is it a slower more controlled roll that way? or picked up and place on its wheels?

 

BigWheelRecovery  said:

BMK3457 said:

Thank you all for the positive comments. As a company, we have always taken great pride in our work, as well as the condition of our equipment. And everyone knows the increasing need for proper and thorough documentation, both written and photographed.

There were a few questions posed, so I will do my best to answer them. It appears that as the trailers are being uprighted, they are close to the nose of one of our rotators. That is absolutely true. The operator of that truck is one of the best I've seen, and would never put himself or his truck in danger.we believe in keeping things in tight, because you have more control over what you are doing. The further away, the greater the margin for error.

Our initial goal was to reopen as much of the road as safely possible to clear the growing traffic back up and avoid any secondary accidents. We were able to reopen two lanes and still safely complete our job. Up on the turnpike in Ohio, the road crew is always on scene to provide both traffic control and a eye on what or who may pose a danger to our team. The fire department was also on scene throughout the recovery to prevent any unforeseen incidents while we worked. As we got to the transition point from using our air cushions to completing the upright with the rotators, the second was temporarily closed for no more than 3 minutes while we brought the trailers to their wheels. The lane was then reopened.

We use our landing cushions on just about every roll over we do. It is very safe and controlled and we have had nothing but success and praise for using them. It also frees up a winch line to either be used for something else if necessary or just left out of the way, thus creating one less thing for our operators to worry about. We have a few videos of our cushions in use at our face book page, www.facebook.com/richstowingservice

Again, thank you for all the comments and questions. If you have any more, feel free to ask and one of us will do our best to answer!

-Brendan

 

johnnys87 said:

Nice job Team Richs.

 

Gale25yrs said:

So I guess the weights are a secret eh?

 

BMK3457 said:

Gale, I apologize for the not answering your question. It was an oversight on my part.

Truth be told, we did not know the weights on either trailer, as we did not have access to the bills of lading. We did know that they were loaded and planned for the max weight allowed in each trailer. Our team has become quite adept at "reading the trailer" over the years in using our cushions. As we placed our cushions, we kept a very close eye at the integrity of the trailer, as well as what the walls, ceiling and floor were doing.

Again, I apologize for not answering you in a more timely manner. Hopefully this answers your questions.

~Brendan

 

On the morning of Sunday October 26 around 7:45 am, we received a call from the Ohio Turnpike Commission for an overturned commercial at the 145mm westbound decel ramp. We immediately responded with one of our 50 ton wreckers to secure the scene and relay information back to our dispatch center for additional equipment that would be needed.

 

Once on scene, our operator found a tandem axle day cab pulling a 53 foot reefer trailer loaded with approximately 30,000 of miscellaneous perishable freight headed for a local grocery store. The unit had come to rest inches away from the property fence at the bottom of the hill. The trailer was determined to be mostly intact, less a few roof bows broken through the ceiling. Given the location at the top of the decel ramp and the narrow, blind curve, the turnpike advised they wanted to keep as much of the lane open as possible. We dispatched two of our 60 ton rotators, our air cushion recovery trailer, our single axle dolly convertor, and a service truck to contain any potential spills.

 

Once on scene, we uncoupled the tractor from the trailer, uprighted it, brought it to the road, and prepped it for tow. It was hooked to our 50 ton and towed back to the customer's facility. Once that was out of the way, our team decided the most efficient and safest way to recover the trailer would be to winch it to the edge of the shoulder and upright it onto the shoulder, thus allowing traffic to continue to flow at all times. We placed one rotator at each end of the trailer, winched it up the hill, placed our convertor on the king pin and chained it in place. We also chained the tires from rolling as it was brought onto the landing cushions.

 

At this point we began placing our cushions under the trailer for the upright. Knowing we were on a negative slope, and not wanting the trailer to "roll" across the bags and back down the hill, we placed one drag line from each rotator to the bottom of the trailer to hold it in place. As we placed our cushions, we were very cautious to pad any areas where sharp edges would damage them. Once the cushions were almost fully inflated, we placed our recovery straps. We used four straps secured to various points on the under side of the trailer to distribute as much of the weight as possible. Working together, our rotators uprighted the trailer onto our waiting landing cushions.

 

Once upright, we removed the trailer from the shoulder to a open parking lot, and packed up our cushions to be brought back to our Middleburg Hts. facility to be cleaned properly and put away for the next job. The reefer unit was able to be refired after fluids were checked and the customer was very happy that we were able to complete the recovery without opening the trailer or compromising the integrity of the product.

 

We would like to thank all of our team that gave up their Sunday morning plans to come out and assist with this recovery. Without that team work, this job, like most, would not have been nearly as easy and successful. Great job guys!

 

Once again, our Sonetics headsets made this job exponentially easier, with yelling removed and communication a breeze. We can't wait for our next set to arrive.

 

Thanks for looking and as always,

 

BE SAFE!!!

 

 

 

Scooby said:

On Friday, May 23rd at approximately 3:30pm, One of our drivers rolled up to an overturned tractor trailer on top of a passenger car at the off ramp from I-480 to Broadway Ave. in Garfield Hts, Ohio. At that point, although we were aware that another tow company serviced that municipality, our primary concern was life safety and potential entrapment, so we offered our help. Once we knew that all parties had been safely removed from the vehicles, the police department informed our driver that their tower was going to perform the recovery. At this time, G&M Towing arrived on scene. After a discussion between our operator and theirs, we found out that the trailer was loaded with 40,000+ pounds of Orange juice. At that time, it was recognized that this would be a textbook air cushion recovery, should they choose to go that route. Within minutes they made their decision and they requested our air cushion recovery team. We got our trailer and operators headed that way while the operators from G&M prepared the unit for tow upon completion. 

 

Once our crew and recovery trailer arrived on scene, the incident Commander and police released the scene to the towers. Working together, both Companies had a hand in placing the cushions, as well as placing the straps and chains for the upright. Using 6 of our Jumbos, we uprighted the trailer and caught it with 3 landing Cushions. 

 

At this time, all of our equipment was packed away, the car was loaded on a flat bed, the full unit was hooked by one of their heavy wreckers, and we all shook hands and cleared the scene. Once back at G&M's facility, they were able to refire the reefer unit, which in turn saved the load.

 

We would like to thank the crew from G&M Towing. It was a pleasure to work with those guys.

 

As always,

BE SAFE!!!

 

 

towman92266 said: