10 ■ TIMESReview ■ WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2014
F EAT U R E
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Towing on the Trans-Canada John Kampman has been driving a tow truck on the Trans-Canada Highway around Revelstoke since 2000. On Saturday, we joined him as he and his crew pulled a semi from an avalanche. Photos, clockwise from right: 1 John Kampman drags away some debris from the smashed up semi after successfully pulling it from the snow. 2 The avalanche was powerful enough to throw the semi to the side of the
TIMESReview ■ WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2014 ■ 11
F E ATURE
road and hoist it at least a metre off the ground. 3 From left: Darrell Kerr, Ron Taylor and John Kampman haul a heavy hook and cable into place at the back of the trailer. 4 Two heavy wreckers were put to use to pull the semi from the avalanche. It took more than an hour to get it free and to the side of the road.
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The semi-truck was jacked a metre off the ground, thrown off the side of the road by an avalanche of snow. The front windshield was smashed in and parts of the truck were strewn about. The driver experience minor injuries and taken to hospital. Meanwhile, John Kampman was eyeing the scene, figuring out just how he was going to get that tractor-trailer unit out of the snow, on to the road and then back to Revelstoke. The owner of Columbia Towing, he was on site after the semi was struck by an avalanche in Rogers Pass in the early hours of Saturday, Feb. 15. Kampman has been in the towing business since 1996, when he traded a bunch of vehicles and a gun he had collected for a towing company in Invermere. In 2000, he purchased Columbia Towing in Revelstoke, eventually acquiring businesses in Golden and Sicamous. He now he runs a company with three locations servicing the most treacherous stretches of the Trans-Canada Highway. Kampman grew up on a farm in Southern Ontario, in an area near Toronto slowly getting devoured by urban sprawl. He drove tractors on the farm before he was 10-years-old. As a teenager, he hung out a garage where he got his first taste of being around tow trucks. However, it wasn't until years later — after spending time as a mechanic and a carpenter — that he finally entered the industry. It happened after one of his legs was crushed in a work accident. Unable to be on his feet much, he looked for work that would be easier on him. That's when he ended up driving tow trucks. In his years on the road, Kampman has seen the worst. As we drove up to Rogers Pass he pointed out all the spots where he'd had to haul vehicles up the bank and back onto the
road. He showed me the rock where a woman was pinned after getting thrown from her tractor-trailer. She was sleeping while her partner drove and it wasn't until hours later when they pulled the truck away that anyone saw the body. He talked about his week, which has been pretty much non-stop since the snow returned last Monday. His latest stretch of work began Friday just after midnight. From then, it was one call after another – crashes, pulling snowplows out of ditches and more – catching some shuteye when he could. He keeps going because he needs the work and you don't know when things might slow down. It’s an expensive business to be in — whe tow truck we were driving in cost about $300,000 and Columbia Towing has a fleet of 30 vehicles between its three locations. By the time I'd joined up with Kampman at the Columbia Towing yard in the Revelstoke industrial park on Saturday at 8 a.m. he'd had five hours sleep in the past 32 hours. Combined with all the trauma he’s witnessed, it's no wonder he told me he's considering finding a new line of work. We drove up to Rogers Pass on an empty road, shut down due to the avalanche. Traffic controllers let us through quickly — they all recognized Kampman at the wheel of his heavy wrecker tow truck, a familiar site on these roads. On the hood scrawled the slogans “23 1/2 hour service” and “We’ll pick you up.” We stopped a little before the slide path and switched on our avalanche beacons. We drove the rest of the way, stopping between the Loop Brook and Asulkan parking lots, where a small slide path coming from Abbott Ridge reached the road. It was a small path compared to many of the others that run onto the highway, but it still packed enough punch to take out the tractor trailer that Kampman was scoping out.
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The semi had been nearly knocked right off the road. The cab was hoisted in the air by the snow and perched over the bank. The trailer 13-476.5_NGHCE_PrintAds_4C_4.3125x7_P1.indd 4 1/10/2014 2:14:11 PM was sideways, stretching diagonally across the westbound lane. Parks Canada had already cleared the YOUR COMMUNITY DESERVES snow off the road but Kampman asked them RELIABLE HIGH-SPEED INTERNET. to place some snow on the right side of the vehicle to make sure it didn't flip over as they pulled it loose. His colleague Darrell Kerr had followed us up there with a second tow truck and Ron Taylor had brought up a truck cab to tow away the And that’s why Xplornet works with local trailer once it was moved. experts who can provide you with the They worked together, shovelling snow and support and service you need. Give your hooking heavy chains up to the semi. They put local dealer a call. two at the back of the trailer and few more on One-time activation fee the tractor. They positioned the two tow trucks Together you can count on us for: only $99 and attached large cables to the chains. Then • Fast, reliable high-speed Internet with speeds they started hauling, controlling the cables up to 10 Mbps with joysticks at the back of the truck. • 100% Canadian Customer Support 24/7 Slowly the semi moved but its weight was • Guaranteed Satisfaction – or your money back2 such that Kampman tow truck was skidding in place, despite the outriggers that were digging into the asphalt. Occasionally they would GET CONNECTED TO RELIABLE HIGH-SPEED INTERNET, CALL TODAY! re-position their vehicles, adjusting the chains as needed and slowly but surely, the semi was moved from the concrete-like snow that encased it. Kampman worked the cab and Kerr worked the trailer. Together they dislodged the semi, getting it back on the road, where Taylor hopped in and parked it to the side — it still ran. The semi was split into its component sections and Taylor hooked his cab onto the trailer, while Kampman hooked his tow truck onto the cab for the drive back to Revelstoke. 1.855.333.7333 For Kampman, the day continued. While xplornet.com moving the semi two more calls came in another snow plow was stuck near Rogers $34.99 applies to the 1st six months. $44.99 starts in month 7. Offer ends March 31, 2014 and is available to new customers who agree to a 1 year term commitment on any Xplornet 4G Residential package. Not to be combined with any other offer. Pass, and there was another call near Crazy $99 activation fee applies on a 1 year term. Taxes apply. Xplornet high-speed Internet service includes a 30-day money-back Creek. guarantee. If you are dissatisfied with your service for any reason, you will receive a refund of all amounts paid to Xplornet if you cancel your subscription within 30 days of activation. Xplornet® is a trade-mark of Xplornet Communications Inc. © At some point he would get to sleep. 2014 Xplornet Communications Inc.
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