Making room for tow truck
drivers isn’t just the law—
it’s a matter of life and death
AMA driver Darren Klassen
keeps an eye on surrounding
vehicles at all times
PAUL SWANSON
A YOUNG FATHER OF TWO WAS CHANGING a
tire on the shoulder
of a quiet Edmonton street when he saw vehicle headlights
coming straight for him. He leapt to safety—just in time to
see a Jeep plough through three of the safety pylons laid out
15 metres ahead of the breakdown.
That father was Darren Klassen, an AMA tow truck operator, who was helping a member when the terrifying incident
occurred. “The driver realized what had happened after she
hit the second pylon and started to swerve away from me,”
Klassen recalls. “I noticed there was a cell phone in her hand
at the time.”
Klassen took every precaution that day: He was wearing his
brightly coloured safety vest, pylons were carefully arranged
to mark the scene, and his tow truck’s amber lights were flashing. Yet a single driver’s inattention put his livelihood—and
his life—in jeopardy.
The number and severity of roadside incidents is on the rise
in Alberta. Last year, a Calgary tow operator was hospitalized
after being hit by a car on Deerfoot Trail, a collision that saw
him bounce off the windshield roughly nine metres in the air.
In a separate incident on Calgary’s Glenmore Trail, a BMW,
travelling at an estimated speed of 100 kilometres per hour, hit
a flatbed tow truck with such force that the car it was towing
went airborne across two lanes of traffic. And last summer in
Edmonton, an inattentive driver came within half a metre
of hitting a tow operator after swerving to avoid another car
that had rightfully slowed down.
In Alberta, the rules of the road are clear: Motorists must
slow to at least 60 kilometres per hour—or less if the posted
speed limit is lower—when they’re in the lane next to a parked
tow truck with flashing lights. Moving into the lane farthest
from the incident is preferable, when it’s safe to do so.
Klassen and his coworkers have experienced too many near
misses to count. “I don’t want my wife and kids to be scared
for me every time I head off to work,” Klassen says.
AMA’s Roadside Assistance team receives rigorous training
to ensure that they and the members they’re helping stay safe
at the roadside. Tow operators are provided with ongoing
high-risk training that covers proper pylon placement, safe
ways to walk around a scene, and the use of a second service
truck to shelter breakdown scenes in dangerous locations.
But everyone needs to do their part. “The roadways are »
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