The "NO-ZONE" Of Carrier Loading

[Tow411]

Topic Orginally Create by danielswt on Tow411 in November of 2005:

 

im getting tired of having law enforcement stand behind my truck's while i load a vehicle onto the bed. i was looking into possibly getting some sort of a diagram with a small bit of usefull information that describes why this is an unsafe area ,and then haveing them put up in the locker rooms or meeting rooms of our local agencies to help educate them in a polite manner. has anybody everdone this ? do you think it is a good idea ? and do you know where i might be able to find this information already drawn up so i dont have to start from scratch.

please e-mail it to me if anyone has something that might work for me. dangerousdantheman@hotmail.com THANKS--- Daniel ---
"im only stuck a lil"
www.southwesttowing.com

 

FMS Mike said:

I do agree with your concern and I agree that a diagram or something to explain the dangers. One thing I am not afraid to do is tell them to get out of the way. It's our name and our responsibility for safety and if I believe there is any type of safety hazard on a scene i am working, I will stop what I am doing and remedy the situation. I'm sure that police officer would rather have a tow truck driver tell him to move rather than having his family told something worse than that.

SAFETY FIRST!!

Mike
Farmington Motor Sports

 

Autorescue said:

I've not had a single one question the logic when they've been told to stay out of that zone and granted we have a relatively small police & fire presents here in Marquette, but nobody goes into that area here now including non participants in the event who are now ushered out of that area by police & fire prsonel .John R.

 

Forgivenone said:

When I use the flatbed or rollback, I tell all people standing behind me or the truck to stand away from the vehicle's roll path. I let them know that the winch was made by human hands and could possibly fail sometime. If it failed now, that is not the spot you'd want to be. As the tow driver, you are responsible for your scene and those around it. I love getting on the P.A. and telling people to move back at least 110 feet because if a cable breaks, it'll rip through you like a hot knife through butter. You should she them move, it's a funny site.

 

FMS Mike said:

Dan, I know how fast they move all too well. One day on a stolen vehicle recovery I was winching the car up the hill after pulling it out of the water. As we winched it 2 cameramen decided to stand next to my rear tires. I said you guys need to move and they said no this is great footage. I said, if this cable breaks it will slice u in half. They moved real quick and apologized. Best part was is they parked the cameras 100 ft in front of my truck , just good enough to get the company name in for the evening news.

Mike
Farmington Motor Sports

 

Towmaster B said:

There used to be one trooper that would constantly do that, even after I had politely asked him not to stand there. One day about three years ago, we were called to a two vehicle crash. That particular trooper was on scene. Again, he was standing behind my truck. I hadn't lowered the bed yet. I started to lower the bed while he was standing there watching traffic go by. I nudged his feet with the end of the bed just enough for him to almost fall over. He didn't even say a word and walked over to the side. He never stood there again. And, yes he did call us again after that.

 

Talmon said:

i was pulling a car out of the ditch,when the intoxicated driver walked into the winch cable as i was pulling,and it closed line him,then the officer decides to take him in,he only got charged with pd,no dui,hung over with a sore neck to go along with the head ache

 

Unknown Member said:

They had a guy electrocuted in Phoenix (think it was 2002).

He was driving 1 of those garbage container trucks, somewhat like a flat bed.

You pull up to the big garbage container, hook your cable up to it, and winch the cable in.

His cable snapped. The end of it flew up into the air, hitting power lines. It blew out all the tires and fryed the driver who was standing next to the truck, using the hydraulic control sticks.

 

JR said:

I just tell them to move and expalain as to why I am asking them to move. I also tell them the deputy that has to come out a write the report for you getting run over is going to be really pissed. Dont be scared to say anything just tell them it is in your own best interest to get out of the danger zone.

 

ncoast said:

I tell people that Murphy has a law, about standing behind my truck or near my rope. And it states, that things will only break if someone is there.

 

wreckerman05 said:

had one yesterday a yukon-high off the ground had groundeffects-not even close to scraping-lady who owned it -3 times i ask her not to stand behind it while loading-sometimes when i load i will put a safety from front of bed-i did this after the 3rd time of asking-life goes on if we are safe-something can happen in an instance-play safe-have fun

 

FMS Mike said:

Yea Safety First is key. I love how people think that our goal is to wreck their car. I had one who's son fell asleep while driving his jetta at 2 am and got caught up in a tractor trailer's tandems and sent him for a ride leaving him half in the shoulder half in slow lane. He was fine but the car suffered a lot of damage. While I was on the traffic side in a poorly lit section of road attaching my four point tie downs the mother though itd be a good point to step into the travel lane to point out to me that the tires only had a hundred miles on them and that I should be careful with them, unaware that 3 of them were taken care of by the tractor trailer. I yelled at her to get back real loud, loud enough for the state trooper to come running and grab her and escort her to the shoulder and explain very sternly how stupid she just was .

"Lets be careful out there"

Michael Vibert
Farmington Motor Sports