CAA Niagara urges drivers to slow down, move over
CAA Niagara is urging drivers to slow down and move over when passing a tow truck.
“Highways are busier now than they’ve ever been,” said Trevor Kinghorn, emergency roadside service manager for CAA Niagara, who admitted he worries about his drivers.
While people who fail to slow down and move over for tow trucks and emergency vehicles can face fines upwards of $2,000 plus demerit points, he said that doesn’t seem to be enough of a deterrent.
The Slow Down Move Over law was amended in 2015 to include tow trucks, and yet CAA Niagara still must continually remind drivers.
Parked on the shoulder of the QEW, Kinghorn said most transport trucks move over one lane to give the tow truck space, but only about five per cent of other vehicles comply.
It’s a scary feeling, being out on the side of a busy highway, exposed to the highspeed traffic, and he said any truck driver can attest that the force of a passing transport truck can actually pull you into traffic.
“It’s a hard experience to describe, because it’s very dangerous.”
The number of tow truck drivers injured or killed on the job is quite high in Canada, he said, but there have been no fatalities in Niagara.
That being said, Kinghorn could easily list employees who have suffered injuries because of incidents that have occurred while pulled over harnessing a customer’s vehicle to a truck.
In one example, a distracted driver hit a worker’s tow truck while it was parked on the Highway 406 shoulder, pushing the truck into the car being serviced and throwing the worker into a ditch.
That particular worker had to take six months off work to recover, he said. “This isn’t a job for everyone.” Emergency roadside service driver Jamey Townsend, who has more than 20 years of experience rescuing stranded drivers, said he’s had some close calls of his own.
He recalled one driver who was texting and driving and drove right into the front driver’s side of his truck while he was doing a tire change.
If it weren’t for the customer who grabbed him and launched him into a ditch, he said he could have been seriously injured. That truck ended up being a complete writeoff.
“I think my life matters, and I want to go home to my family every night,” said Townsend.
It takes mere seconds to slow down and change lanes, he said, so there’s no excuse for putting a life in danger.
Despite the danger, Townsend said he loves his job. He gets to meet new people and even though they’re often having a bad day, they’re pretty happy to see him.
“You just tell ’em, ‘You know what, your car is replaceable and you aren’t.’”
St. Catharines resident Brad Butler, whose car had to be towed to a nearby garage, said drivers like Townsend offer a valuable service.