No Way Through

[Schmitty30]

Topic Originally Created on Tow411 in January of 2015:

 

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:

Being a little Mom & Pop operation, it always amazes me how the "Big Boys Work". Thanks for showing us "Wee Little Companies" the proper way things should be done with great documentation. Beautiful looking trucks and equipment......Sure glad I don't have to pay your expenses 

Cowboy For All My Life
Wrecker Driver To Make A Livin
Cowboy Preacher by Calling !

 

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:

Textbook job! Nice set up an recovery,  BOB   

 

 

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