TOW DRIVERS SAY FAREWELL
Hundreds of tow truck drivers drove their rigs in solemn procession yesterday to honor Daniel J. Coady Jr., a fellow operator who was killed last Wednesday night as he was helping a driver at a crash scene on Interstate 495 in Andover.
Some of the trucks followed the flatbed carrying Coady’s casket from Conte Funeral Home to the North Andover Mall, where another fleet of highway haulers spilled onto Route 114, before coming to a halt at St. Michael Church in North Andover, the hometown of the 41-year-old husband and father of two.
“It was amazing, all these tow trucks drivers who came to pay their respects and raise awareness about the dangers of the job,” said Ronald
Gill, the owner of Ronstoppable Towing Inc. in Phillipston. “It was something I was proud to be a part of.”
Coady was standing to the left of his truck in the I-495 South breakdown lane, loading one of the vehicles from a two-car crash onto his flatbed, state police said, when a 2007 Pontiac G6 hit an unoccupied BMW in the lane before striking the tow truck and Coady. The Pontiac became disabled in the right travel lane, where it was hit by a southbound 2011 Hyundai Santa Fe, police said.
Coady was rushed to Lowell General Hospital Saints Campus, where he was pronounced dead. Another tow truck operator — a 44-yearold Lawrence man who was on top of the flatbed helping Coady — was injured when he fell from the truck in the collision, police said. He was taken to Lowell General Hospital with minor injuries.
The Pontiac’s driver, Shiina Dionne, 28, of Lawrence, was taken to the same hospital with serious injuries and then transferred to Tufts Medical Center in Boston, where she was arraigned last Friday on a vehicular homicide charge from her hospital bed.
Stephen Deveau of Action Towing in Revere described Coady as “outgoing, funny, cheerful, a hard worker,” and said he hoped his death would lead to stricter enforcement of a state law that took effect in 2009, requiring drivers to move over or slow down for stopped emergency and maintenance vehicles with flashing lights.