Tow Truck Struck 01.16.20 (NY)

[TowNews]

 

 

Portland towing company asks GPS apps to warn drivers of stopped emergency vehicles

 

PORTLAND, OR (KPTV) - Speed’s Towing, a Portland towing company, is asking popular GPS apps to alert drivers of stopped emergency vehicles up ahead with a “Slow Down Move Over” warning.

The hope is that drivers will then be more likely to actually do it.

 

FOX 12 rode along with driver Lloyd Buckley on Thursday to see things first hand. He pulled to the shoulder of Interstate 84 with his lights flashing as if he were towing a car. It’s the law for cars to move over.

 

“Nobody’s getting over, from semi-trucks to passenger cars, they’re all just going by,” Buckley said. ”One guy, two since we’ve been sitting here, two people got over.”

 

Buckley said he’s been hit by cars before while out doing his job, and it's a danger he faces daily.

“For me, the biggest fear that I had is that somebody who works here would have to call my wife or my family, tell them I wasn’t coming home,” Buckley said.

 

Somebody who works here like Carrie Ransome. She’s the one who submitted the suggestion to Waze and Google Maps, asking specifically for a “Slow Down Move Over” warning to drivers approaching tow trucks or other vehicles on the side of the road helping in an emergency.

 

“I’m doing this so that everyone gets home safe, so that our family and our loved ones who are out there rescuing motorists on the road, they get home safely,” Ransome said.

 

RESOURCE LINK with video