Steve W

Another one from a parking garage:

Things to micromanage: Safety, Yes. Critical Procedures, Yes How they like to keep thier truck - No Color of undershirt they wear - No

Yea but letting them fail in a pizza shop means you end up with a pie on the floor. In our business it might mean a funeral. Some things should be micro managed.

Allstate just as stingy with customers as they are with us!

Hey o!

Hey O!!

Guy was doing OK till he wasn't .

We all do some kind of work with tools and screws. I have seen these silicone (I think some are even even magnetic) tool trays that are pretty neat. And you could smack a logo on them. Here is an example. Not all of them mind you but the small one would be neat to give away. https://www.amazon.com/HORUSDY-Non-Slip-Flexible-Organizer-Christmas/dp/B089QCPPX4/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1J1AY2S2Q43AK&keywords=silicone+tool+holder&qid=1642185418&sprefix=silicone+tool+holder%2Caps%2C464&sr=8-1 Also I have liked these little magnetic stick on do hickys to put in the cab for phone mounts or Radio Mic mounts. Cold even stick some small tools to them in the rear boxes: https://www.amazon.com/Magnetic-Universal-Rectangle-Dashboard-Tablets/dp/B07ZVJ7191/ref=sr_1_68?crid=1V48278LDRBH2&keywords=magnetic+phone+holder&qid=1642185978&sprefix=magnetic+phone+holder%2Caps%2C188&sr=8-68 Then a more low tech one. For us guys that do roadside work. A nice tire marker to mark a puncture on a tire. Always seem to loose mine. https://www.amazon.com/Steelman-00062-Yellow-Marking-Crayons/dp/B00IJW2Q9E/ref=sr_1_10?crid=2YFJJNQEV03IC&keywords=tire+marker&qid=1642186141&sprefix=tire+marker%2Caps%2C705&sr=8-10 Or a nice paint marker to write on impounded vehicles. https://www.amazon.com/PACK-Sharpie-Sanford-Paint-Marker/dp/B01CWZ08O8/ref=sr_1_9_mod_primary_new?crid=2YFJJNQEV03IC&keywords=tire+marker&qid=1642186223&sbo=RZvfv%2F%2FHxDF%2BO5021pAnSA%3D%3D&sprefix=tire+marker%2Caps%2C705&sr=8-9 Then there is always the old stand by's Small pocket drivers. Ones with the Tire Valve stem tool on the top are the best. https://www.amazon.com/Gato-Tools-Valve-Removal-Pocket/dp/B08RZDRRYP/ref=sr_1_2?crid=2Z0VWR25PRBSZ&keywords=pocket+screwdriver+tire+valve&qid=1642186385&sprefix=pocket+screwdriver+tire+valve%2Caps%2C287&sr=8-2

Present!

Here is some pics from the last year of injuries from the Facebook Group. More common than we think. I was trained on them during new employee training for the FSP program. Drilled home to never stand in front or to the rear of the path of the bar. Take it across your body with your arms. Made us practice that 3 times a day for 2 weeks!!

Fundraiser put up by the companies owner for the family: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-with-funeral-expenses-for-derrick-plante?utm_campaign=p_cf+share-flow-1&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=customer

What would be great to see from all these guys that do videos of this stuff is a few attempts at a "minimum safety hookup " , see how fast a time they can get from pull up to take off. Maybe a challange is in order? Or a TicToc Trend, or whatever the kids call it these days!!

> Police said the tow truck’s flashing lights were on at the time. That seems to be a no win situation. Keep them off (as the research says) to prevent the drunks from being attracted to them and driving right into the lights. Or Keep them on to alert the people texting and driving to move over a lane that they probably won't do anyway. But bridge work is the ultimate no escape situation. They did not mention where the driver of the disabled car was. If it was an unattended tow that would really suck that it could have waited till daylight hours or a lane closure at 3am. We gotta start looking out for ourselves in some situations.

Think I have seen those beds before they have no storage on the passenger side of the truck is that correct? That is just building danger right into your own truck. Luckily had a wide shoulder but still spent too much time on the traffic side. The safe? Operated all controls from inside the cab. But the more I see I notice that safety chains and Hi Vis clothing are just optional for most folks.

Very good example of staying on the non traffic side of the vehicles in this vid during most of the hook up. Still walked back to the customer on the traffic side of the disabled car though. But at least he used the controls on the correct side.

Nice PVC fence posts!! That gets my OCD going!!

Thought this was interesting. Think we can start dressing like this?

You know it's a hard lift when the tongue comes out!!

Guess you would need to really drill down on the language in the policy to see what exactly is covered. Ask you argent also, give them a few scenarios and see what they say.

Why wouldn't General Liability be enough in those instances? Unless Katie do you not have General Liability Insurance?

I had a thought about this topic the other day after watching another flatbed driver working the controls from the traffic side on the shoulder of the 210 Freeway in CA. . I used to work at GM in a warehouse facility and we had an incredible safety record for a warehouse. Something like 500 days without a lost workday accident. So seeing a "Tower down" every few weeks is sickening. One thing we did was if there was ever a serious injury at any facility an accident report was done, recommendations for change made and the report was distributed throughout the warehouse system and it was covered in every employee meeting with every employee. Is there anything like that that has been created for the Tow industry? I know in this very forum there are like 50 safety topics but they seem to focus on loading procedures and the like. Do the towing associations put out safety talks on these fatalities? My though on this was this. When you cover an operator death with your employees what source do you use? I would imagine the newspaper article about the accident? Does anyone ever get the police report on the accident?? One thing about those safety reports we did at GM the employees name was never used for confidentiality. But it was also never used because we wanted to get across that this could happen to anyone. Making it not about a specific person the person reading it can be like "Oh I have done that exact thing" . The newspaper articles generally focus (rightly) on the person and thier life and not the actions of the victim on that day. I went back a few years and pulled some police reports on Tower Down situations. One good thing is the agencies do not give you the gory details. But I think they give you enough to make it hit home. Just as an example how do you think the following would go over with your employees? Fatality Accident Time of Incident: 2:40am Weather: Clear Lighting: Dark Road Surface: Dry Driver of Vehicle 1: 25 Year old female. Injuries (None) Distracted (No) Vision Obstructed (No) Use of Alcohol (No) Use of Drugs (No) Vehicle 1 was traveling northbound on the service road from the Interstate at approximately 55MPH. Tow Truck 1 was parked on the inside shoulder of the Interstate service road, partially in the inside travel lane with emergency lights activated. Tower 1 and Customer 1 were standing in the roadway in the inside lane of the northbound service road from the Interstate. Tower 1 was not wearing any reflective clothing. As Vehicle 1 proceeded northbound it swerved to miss the Tow Truck that was partially in the left lane and collided with Tower 1. Tower 1 became airborne and impacted Tow Truck 1's right side mirror. Tower 1 came to final rest in the inside travel lane of the service road north of Tow Truck 1. Vehicle 1 continued north and collided with Customer 1 Customer 1 became trapped underneath Vehicle 1. Vehicle 1 continued north on the service road dragging Customer 1. Vehicle 1 veered to the right and Vehicle 1 overturned onto its roof. The front of Vehicle 1 then collided with the concrete barrier wall on the north shoulder of the service road. Customer 1 came to final rest in the left travel lane. Tower 1 was pronounced deceased on scene by Lieutenant Rycus of the Fire and Rescue Department at 2:51 a.m. Tower 1 was removed from the scene and transported to the District Medical Examiner's Office. Customer 1, was pronounced deceased by Doctor Beth Chase of Oak Park Medical Center at 5:15 a.m. The incident reports we did at GM would then go into root cause analysis. Called it the 5 why's. Ask at least 5 why's and see if you can get to the root cause. Why did the Tower get hit? He was standing in the Travel lane. Why was he standing in a travel lane? He was loading a disabled car with the bed controls located on the right side of the tow truck. Why was he using the right side bed controls? (and that is something we cannot answer without further information as the drawing above is not to scale and not clear if they had enough room to use the left side controls) Then you could do another 5 why for the customer to get a root case as to why he was hit. You could also to 5 Whys as to why the driver of the vehicle did what they did, might be some speculation of course but good to approach it from all angles. Then you would go into recommendations and changes. They always told us the weakest recommendations were ones you had no control over. So a recommendation of "remind employees to follow the rules" would be similar to us saying "remind the public to move over" it's a weak recommendation. What they would rather see is actual changes that eliminated the problem. Something like elimination of right and left bed controls. All done from a remote or in the cab. Then if the area was tight the tower could stand on the K rail and operate thier bed after hooking up the car. There are limits of course but you would be surprised what solutions you can come up with if you get down to the root cause. And Like I said before the agencies release these mild versions of the accident reports to the public. The next level after a simple report like this is the detailed drawings and photos. And that can sometimes be borderline gore. But I am wondering if that is what it would take to get folks to take it seriously. I also think it might scare some people right out of this industry and in the back of my mind I have a sneaking suspicion the drive to keep employees working every day might be behind the lip service we as an industry pay to this topic. I really hope I am wrong about that.

Wanted to follow up on my comment above. For the last month I have actively been avoiding the white line and only hooking up the non traffic side till I can get to a turn out, wider shoulder section or off ramp to complete the traffic side hook ups. I know it's not the end all solution because an errant car can still come from any lane. But I think that is the approach to take with a wheel lift. One wheel strap and safety chain is fine for a slow trip on the shoulder. MY time at the white line cannot be eliminated completely though. With FSP we do not always get there in time and the person has already started a tire change on the traffic side so sometimes I am forced to do it as I would rather do it in 30 seconds with the impact them have them messing around there for 5 minutes. I have gotten into the habit of putting out cones on the white line behind my truck. Not really to protect anything but really just to give me some kind or visual warning if I see my cones start to fly 200 feet back. Had a guy changing out a bearing on a trailer wheel hub the other day on the white line. Could not convince him to just drag it off the freeway and do it on the street. Threw out all the warning I could for him. Turned out OK but I watched from my truck.

Jeesh every other video is a good example of what happens when you are walking on the bed. Triping and slipping all over the place.

Company I work for is only required to have cross wrenches to do tire changes. They put battery impact guns in every truck to get us back in the truck faster. Common impact sockets too but man they get lost so I bring my own 4 common ones just in case. Another one is Jumper cables is all that is required. They put a battery jumper box in each truck. Things I supply of my own. These things are not required in our contract as in if the person needs them they are SOL , we will tow them off but they are on thier own after that. So really I only provide them out of my own pride that I want to solve problems. Tire plugs and tools - (Only used if no spare and a signed damage waiver) Spare tire hoist tool set Valve Stem Inserting tool - My route is a heavy RV trailer route get many rotted stems Zip Ties- Amazing how many peoples cars fall apart Battery terminal Cleaning tools And lately since it's been getting close to 100 degrees bottled water on ice. Make my own ice. I mastered the formula. And since it required by our contract all Uniforms and Safety equipment including steel toe shoes are company provided . Think we only get one pair of shoes a year though so you got to take care of them.

Peak the equipment i am assigned is a wheel lift but requires the straps over the tire. Do you have something similar or you got the grabber type arms? I do both side straps and both safety chains on the shoulder and that means I spend time near the white line. Wondering if I should switch to a strap and safety chain on the non traffic side only till I can get to a turnout or exit. Was not trained that way but man I do not want to have one of these articles written about me.