What Will It Take?
In any area of our lives, education is important. While I believe in continually educating the motoring public that the Move Over Slow Down law includes tow trucks, I also believe the towing and recovery industry has to be continually educated on our role of safety while working on the roadways.
The loss of life in our industry — just in the past couple of weeks — has been devastating. Each one hits all of us directly in our hearts. It’s been stated that towers leave their differences at the door when honoring and remembering a fallen tower, but that unity and fellowship can’t just stop there. As an industry, we all need to step up and cooperate with each other to find what it will take to end these fatalities and injuries.
I recently attended the funeral of one of the original founders of the Wisconsin Towing Association. He was a true pioneer for seeing the value of uniting towing companies — competitors — to help better our industry. You can be competitors, but you also need to watch each other’s backs.
If we don’t do that for each other, who will?
I’ve seen many posts and comments regarding the towing and recovery industry as a brotherhood and sisterhood, especially when participating in a truck convoy to honor a fallen tow operator. That’s a true testament of the alliance we have as an industry at that time, but what will it take to go beyond that to truly be united to help bring about better safety while working to clear the roadways and solve this devastating problem of loss of life or injury to our fellow towers?