Snow leads to busy morning for tow companies

SPOKANE, Wash. — It was a busy morning Wednesday for people who make a living helping others, like plow and tow truck drivers.

Wednesday’s morning commute was a treacherous one, as many people who hadn’t driven in snow in more than a month were hitting the streets.

Tow companies say those slippery conditions kept them very busy.

“The phones have been blowing up since 5 o’clock this morning. We’ve had a ton of calls, a lot of police calls, a lot of slide offs, a lot of wench outs,” said Brian Caudill, a driver with Frank’s Towing.

For hours, the calls were nonstop. And those tow truck drivers have to deal with the same conditions as everyone else.

“On these roads it’s taking me twice as long. 20-30 minutes when it would take me 10-15 normally,” said Frank’s Towing Driver Jerry Keefer.

KXLY went along with Keefer Wednesday, hoping to see a tow in action. The good news was that by later afternoon, the calls had stopped coming, and no one needed a tow while we were there. The bad news, though, is that tow companies say as temperatures drop, they think the road conditions will get worse.

“Tonight’s going to be deadly. It’s going to be icy, it’s going to be a sheet of ice. And there’s going to be a lot of wrecks tonight,” Caudill said.

Hopefully that won’t be the case, but responding to wrecks is a tough aspect of the job for tow truck drivers. They say the scenes can get gruesome at times.

“We get there after the first responders, but sometimes the tow truck’s needed for them to be able to do their job, depending on the accident, so yeah, it’s… but, you have a job to do,” Keefer said.

It’s a reminder to them, and should be to all of us, to take it slow.

“If the speed limit’s 30, do 15. That’s what I’m doing and I’m in a 4-wheel drive tow truck,” Caudill said.

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