Re: Your Best, "I Got My Butt Chewed Today" Story

[rreschran]

I post this topic as the result of several posts that are going back and forth about working accidents and incidents with flatbed carriers. For towers following those posts, would you share a quick story having to do with an officer telling you how-to do your job, if you were reprimanded about something, because you were late on-scene, or if you received that unforgettable and unjustified butt-chewing in the past? I'm pretty confident that for towers who've worked this career any amount of time ... you probably have a story to remember?    R.

[GRUMPS The Towman]

I received a call through county dispatch for our local state trooper barracks just at the start of  this winter season one night for a vehicle off the roadway, on its side in a farm field. I was told the usual very little from the dispatcher when I accepted the call and headed out. when I arrived on scene with my roll back the trooper came out of his cruiser and began berating me about showing up on "His road " and "His wreck"  with a flatbed. ( He requested a wrecker but the dispatcher never relayed that to me, they also never mentioned I would be the second attempt at this )He continues to tell me that another company had been there for 40 minutes before me with a flatbed and all they had accomplished was getting the vehicle stuck worse than it was. I found out later the "other company" was a local competitor of mine who just recently went into business. Said company has been nothing but trouble for all of us ( towers and police alike ) this past year. I explained to the officer that I would be able to recover the vehicle without much hassle with what i have on scene. I could understand his frustration, he had been standing in the freezing cold and blowing snow while this "other company" screwed around and  failed, ultimately telling the officer that this job could not be performed with a flatbed and required a wrecker. after discussing what I planned to do, and showing him my equipment he relented and i performed the recovery in short order. afterwards the officer apologized to me and even offered to buy coffee when we got back to town. We got coffee and got a chance to talk a bit. We had a great discussion and the one question I had for him that he had a hard time answering was " If you came to the conclusion that the " other company " was inept and not up to snuff as he put it then why when they stated that a wrecker was required  you took that as gospel?" His response was he doesnt know anything about this type of work and just went with what he was being told.  I later found out that the "other company " blocked up the road then proceeded to pull out all his line then promptly pulled the line off the drum. after trying in vain to get the line back on the drum, He then tied the line to tow hook on the front of his truck and attempted to pull the car, on its side mind you and the car continued to dig in to the slushy mud mixture until he dragged it too close to a wire fence. At that point he packed up his tore up gear and told the officer it needed a wrecker because all roll backs dont have enough wire rope on them to reach the casualty. Long story short, I was able to not only calm down a irritated officer, I was able to educate him a bit about our industry as well. And not only did I get the recovery and tow, I got a free cup of coffee and a new friend as well.