| Who's Controlling Your Roadside Customer? by Randall C. Resch Handling your roadside customer isn't an easy task. When a motorist's car breaks down, rest assured, he or she isn't thinking of pending danger. They're more concerned about how long it'll take the tow truck to arrive or how much it's gonna cost. What seems to be common in tow-related fatalities are speeds too fast for conditions, weather, driver confusion and/or entry into roadside danger zones. Regardless of the reason, when an out-of-control vehicle enters the zone, someone usually winds up injured or killed. While it's readily known that any service call or tow scenario has the potential for injury or fatality, you may not know that 40 percent of all tow operator fatalities are caused by other drivers entering the danger zone. Could injury or fatality have been prevented through better actions by operators working the scenes? Where Responsibilities Lay In recent Southern California civil cases, three specific questions were asked as to what responsibilities tow operators, tow business owners, and service entities shared when providing roadside services to the motoring public. 1. "Is it reasonable or prudent to allow any person to walk or stand on any freeway or roadside area not intended for pedestrians?" 2. "Were your tow truck operators trained in safe removal procedures of vehicle occupants on the highway and roadside occurrences?" 3. "As business owners, do you provide your tow truck operators industry specific training in safe removal procedures of vehicle occupants?" While these are three extremely direct questions, answers vary within the industry. Recognizing that roadside safety is a critical training responsibility, what are the correct procedures and what expert agency or entity determines those standards? The California Freeway Service Patrol (Orange County Region) Standard Operating Procedures Manual states: "Once an Operator comes in contact with a motorist, he/she is responsible for that motorist's safety and well being until the motorist is safely under way again or taken off the freeway to designated drop locations. Accordingly, Operators need to take charge of the situation and impart all appropriate safety instructions to motorists. For example, Operators shall warn motorists not to turn their backs to traffic, stand between vehicles, or stand close to passing vehicles Herein lies a powerful statement on which attorneys hang their preventable injury or wrongful death suits. While testimony of expert witnesses and industry professionals may differ, this statement certainly suggests a minimum basis of training that every tow operator understands. Leave Em' In or Take Em' Out? Great controversy rages as to the safe removal of a driver and a vehicle's occupant(s). Should they be left in their vehicle with their seatbelts on? During most incidents, upon arrival of a tow truck, the customer exits the driver's door to meet the tower, only to be whacked by an approaching vehicle. During a recent Southern California fatality, an (interviewed) highway patrol officer stated it's OK to leave the driver and their occupant(s) inside their vehicle as service is provided. Isn't this contradictory to what we've been taught? As an added measure to protect the motorist, should the tow truck be parked in front of the disabled vehicle or to the rear while performing services? What do you do? Since there is no industry standard for removing a vehicle's occupants, business owners must decide to train tow operators on how to respond in these scenarios. If your company policy states that the tow operator escort the customer to the awaiting tow truck's cab, are there enough seatbelts for all riders? Does your tow truck have a baby-seat available to transport infants and small children? Could the rough ride of a flatbed carrier force a pregnant mother into premature labor? Because tow truck operators are supposedly trained in highway response and the dangers of recovery, we're considered the "professionals on-scene" in absence of the police or fire-department personnel. This critical assumption begs the question: Do we have the authority and responsibility to instruct and direct our customers out of their vehicles while expediently moving them out of harm's way? Consider the following: Arrival and Strategic Placement of the Tow Vehicle When arriving on scene to a disabled vehicle or traffic accident, where do you position your tow truck? You'll find towing professionals and business owners are split on this topic. Some will tell you that positioning the tow truck behind the disabled vehicle provides protection to the service technician while working traffic-side service calls. Other towers pull to the front of a disabled vehicle making ready for tow if service doesn't get the vehicle running. Again, I turn to the (Orange County) California Freeway Service Patrol Manual. "When an Operator approaches a disabled vehicle, whether in the center median or on the right shoulder, the Operator shall stop in front of the disabled vehicle. The only exception to this rule would be if it is physically impossible to stop in front of the vehicle. Stopping behind the disabled vehicle will necessitate the Operator to pull the tow truck back into moving traffic to reposition it for towing. By pulling in front, the Operator is ready to tow." Do note that the operable phrase here is: "the only exception to this rule would be..." In many tow related situations, it isn't always possible to pull the tow truck in front of the disabled vehicle. Obviously, individual judgment becomes the critical issue in determining where to safely park the tow truck. Clear, Concise Instructions a Must! As stated in the California FSP Manual, once the tow operator arrives on scene, the operator must take charge of the situation while communicating appropriate safety instructions to the vehicle's driver and occupant(s). Once determined that the vehicle must be towed, does your state's law prohibit you from towing the vehicle off the highway with persons riding in the towed vehicle? Most state laws prohibit people from riding in the towed vehicle. Is the vehicle's driver or occupant(s) physically able to exit the vehicle from the non-traffic side? In any case, immediate contact must be made with the vehicle's driver on the non-traffic side with specific and clear-cut instructions about what you want them to do. The following are acceptable procedures to protect your customer's safety: * Never allow any person to stand between the tow truck and the disabled vehicle. This is a common cause of tow operator and/or customer injury or fatality. Never conduct paperwork from this location. * If the vehicle is located in the center-divider and there's a K-rail, where the vehicle's occupants have the physical ability to exit their vehicle from the non-traffic side, quickly escort them to the tow truck's cab, and instruct them to remain seated with seatbelts fastened. If there are more persons than seatbelts allow, don't allow them to wander. Instruct them to remain in their own vehicle with seatbelts fastened and request the highway patrol's assistance. Don't allow any person to stand on the opposite side of the K-rail for approaching traffic to see. This could confuse or distract approaching motorists. * If the vehicle is located on the right-emergency shoulder, instruct the vehicle's occupants to exit the vehicle from non-traffic side and stand behind the guardrail or be seated within the tow truck's cab. * Another option may be to remove the vehicle's occupants and instruct them to stand 40 to 50 feet forward of the tow truck, up an embankment, or behind a solid object, but only if they're physically able to do so. * If your customer is outside their vehicle upon your arrival and you're there for a tire change, ask him or her to be seated in the tow truck's cab, behind the guardrail or up the embankment. Never allow them to stand with you while you perform service. * Whenever possible, use the tow truck's non-traffic side controls. If the customer chooses not to stay in the tow truck's cab and returns to your location, hopefully they'll see you on the non-traffic side and not walk into traffic lanes looking for you. * When performing service or loading, keep a watchful eye on your customer's location and ensure they don't stray into the danger zone. If they don't follow instructions and drift back to your work area, firmly direct them back to a place of safety and demand they wait there until you've completed the service or loading task. Never physically force or restrain your customer. * Where police, fire, or other service entities are on-scene, never allow them to stand within the loading zone when you're winching a vehicle onto the carrier's deck. Although service personnel are working the same incident as you, if the winch cable were to snap, anyone in the path of a rollaway vehicle would certainly be run over. The following diagram depicts the dangerous breakaway and whiplash zone common to loading operations. Inner-City Scenarios: Danger exists when working city streets or off-road scenarios. One of the most violated rules of tow operator and customer safety is: Never allow your customer to help with the service or recovery task. Although your customer seems friendly and knowledgeable about his vehicle, he's clueless of the dangers involved in service calls and recovery situations. For service calls, batteries explode, gasoline flashes, cars fall from jacks, transmissions accidentally drop, only to pin an unsuspecting tow operator or customer. For recovery situations, the ground may give way, vehicles pop out of gear, emergency brakes fail, equipment comes apart, the winch gives way, or perhaps the winch cable breaks! Regardless of the type of call you respond to, upon making initial contact with your customer, get the keys to their car. Once you have keys in hand, you control the service. Never allow your customer to assist you in any manner. Recently, an auto club technician didn't see his customer go to his vehicle and shift it during a winch-out scenario. Where the customer thought he was helping, he prematurely shifted the vehicle into neutral and was dragged a considerable distance backwards. Because he sustained critical injuries, the court awarded a gigantic settlement. This situation might have been prevented by monitoring the customer's movements and securing their place of safety before dangerous winching began. You're the Boss It's your responsibility to protect your customer's safety. You, the tower, must control your customer's movements. Sure it's one gigantic responsibility, but it's in the best interests of roadside safety. You'll find that courts are increasingly sympathetic to injured parties if circumstances prove the tow operator failed to sensibly, reasonably and safely protect their customer's safety. To better your own on-scene safety potential, take control of your customer's actions and keep them out of harm's way. Randall C. Resch is a retired California police officer and was the general manager of Anytime Towing in Poway, Calif., for many years. He is a freelance writer/photographer, consultant, and teacher of towing operations. As American Towman's field/operations editor, he reports on police/tower relations as well as towing procedures. He has been a frequent seminar presenter at the AT Expo. He can be reached at rreschran@aol.com.z Portions of this narrative were taken from his tow truck course. |
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