I did

I just want to purposely wreck a car!!

Don't shame people for wanting to know the answers to these questions. When my autistic son was a child, it was near impossible to get care for him. I would have to race home from work each day to relieve whatever exhausted sitter was generous enough to come and care for him. Nowadays at age 28 he has calmed down a lot, which is good since we waited in a 5 mile, 2-hour backup after a fatal crash on I-84 last week. We'd been sitting there an hour when we spotted the tow trucks trying to weave their way up through! There has got to be a better way to keep accidents from happening first of all, and when they do, to get crews in faster to help victims and clear the scene. People aren't being selfish when they need to get where they are going. They may be a caregiver like myself, or work for an impatient boss who does not understand traffic delays.

Tow truck drivers.

Kacky, you seem upset that you are seeing the tow truck drivers "an hour" after the crash happened.

You do understand that the trucks are only towed after everyone is actually out of the vehicles, the police have taken pictures, and the scene is safe for non-emergency personnel, right?

There are times when people are trapped in cars (giant, tough, hunks of metal - essentially cages), fuel is spilled, police first on the scene are responding to altercations or assisting with other emergency personnel, helicopters have to be landed, loaded, and cleared (sometimes repeatedly), and then tow trucks have to fight THROUGH traffic (which, unless you want to pay enough taxes to turn tow trucks into a public service and equip them with chinook helicopters is just the way it is).


Please do not bump 2 week old threads that have already been talked to death.

Better than starting a whole new thread about it.

Actually, Xi Xi. They are called fairly quickly. I remember many times waiting for an hour or longer for them to clear a scene. The problem is, people treat said drivers like **** so when it is a rush they can't get through. I'm not saying they deserve to zip through traffic like they own the place but if you're in stop traffic and ones coming up on you with lights.....you may want to move over a little. AND NO THIS DOESN'T MEAN FOLLOW THEM ON THE SHOULDER.

Note that I said when trucks are towed, not when the towers are called.

My apologies sir.

There ARE times when the vehicles are moved to the side or into a parking lot where they finish up.

[This message has been edited by AboveAndBeyond (edited 11/23/2012 8:31a).]

Bryan / College Station needs to be doing as Houston is doing their accident towing. Tow trucks have police scanners as soon as an accident happens tow truck show up at the accident, sometimes getting there before police & emergency crew.
Instead they wait till they think its time to call the tow companies, then put a time constraint of 30 min to get to the accident.
Cities should not be putting time constraint, it makes it a liability risk. If a tow company has an accident trying to get to an accident.
For example, Domino's Pizza had a commercial campaign in the 1980s and early 1990s which promised "30 minutes or it's free". This was discontinued in 1993 due to the number of lawsuits arising from accidents caused by hurried delivery drivers.
That's one of the reasons tow truck drivers drive so recklessly, if they don't make it there in 30 min. they will get canceled, loose their turn & wont get paid.
The cities are now trying to contract one tow company for all their towing needs.

[This message has been edited by bubba_joe (edited 11/23/2012 1:14p).]

Just Bryan, as far as what my buddies are telling me.

I agree with the time limit. People here don't understand that though. They assume they work like Houston. I can't count on one hand how many times CSPD has canceled me because I was too far away. One thing that always made me angry was when CSPD requested a flatbed and since ours stayed at the yard, there was NO way for me to make it in that 30 minutes. I'd show up in my self loader and they would get mad, even though it took me half the time to load as it would have on a FB. I think they took them off rotation for a little bit because of this.

A&B I don't think we have ever taken your former employer off rotation. As far as the Houston method - those in Houston complain about it because they say the tow trucks drive recklessly trying to be the first on scene at the crashes so they will get the tow. I can imagine having tow truck drivers race from all over town trying to be first-doesn't sound very safe to me.

i don't know how it works these days in houston, but it used to be that there would be 10-15 wreckers show for a single vehicle and the guys would have to "chip out" to determine who got the tow. call rotation is much better to cut out the wreckless driving.

TILAC. I couldn't remember. They had told us at one time that you guys were because of us not going to get our Flatbed.

It's all good though, you guys' job is slightly more important than theirs

Edit. I didn't mean to call you guys out. BPD was just a little more supportive for lack of a better word.

[This message has been edited by AboveAndBeyond (edited 11/23/2012 9:03p).]

TLIAC do you think wrecker driver don't drive recklessly trying to get there in under 30 min? I'm a tow truck driver & the only time I drive recklessly is trying to the location when i get called out by Bryan or College Station. Other wise I drive below the speed limit & don't run lights.

I believe one of the provision on the new tow contract for College Station towing is if tow company in not there in 30 min. the tow is free.

A St. Louis woman involved in a car wreck with a Domino’s delivery person sued the company on the grounds that the 30-minute or its free pledge led to accidents. Domino’s settled the lawsuit for $79 million, and, Domino’s fearing a wave of similar lawsuits, abandoned the promise.
http://articles.latimes.com/1993-12-22/news/mn-4588_1_delivery-driver

bubba - I haven't been made aware of major complaints regarding reckless driving involving tow truck drivers. I'm guessing it would be hard for the person to know if they were responding to a rotation tow or not. I am guessing that there are pros and cons to each system but I can just see it being a nighmare to try to deal with working a wreck and also dealing with 6 wreckers showing up at a scene - all wanting the tow. I haven't seen any of the contracts so I can't confirm or deny the 30 minute or free part.

Tilac, don't listen to him. There's no free to a wrecker driver . I actually hadent heard about the CSPD contract, just the Bryan one.

Bubba. You will read a lot of complaints on here but it's mostly people blowing smoke.

Makes me wonder how many of the "rookies" are the same person...

^ A LOT

I'd be curious to know which ones, but some cities have their own tow company (or outsource and call it their own) for all city tows (illegal parkers, city vehicles, etc.) and crash victims who don't have a specific company preference.

On page four under No Payment 2.6, a
2.6 No Payment. The Contractor will receive no payment for the following and similar scenarios:
a. Failure of the Contractor to arrive on the scene within the specified time and pursuant to the response times contained herein.

On page three under RESPONSE TIME 1.6, c
1.6. RESPONSE TIME.
c. Response time(s) for tow services shall not exceed thirty (30) minutes per request for service.

City of College Station, Bid # RFP 13-02, Vehicle Towing and Storage Services,
Bids start on 11/16/2012 End 12/6/2012
http://brazosbid.cstx.gov/

30 min in this town seems pretty reasonable. Opening the roadway in a timely manner seems to be a tad more important than angering some tow truck driver who can't make the deadline safely. No offense meant as I don't want someone's business to suffer, but it doesn't seem like the city can just sit there with the road blocked for an hour waiting either.

Then move out of their way.

Who says I don't? Also, why wouldn't I? It's not like I am going anywhere until you get there anyway...

You'd be surprised how many people don't give a crap about wrecker drivers and their scum filled lives. I can't count how many times people have blocked me in before getting to an accident.

Well, put a nice big steel snow plow on the front and make a hole!