Downpour Dangers

By George Nitti

Photos by David Bonilla

Responding Personnel

“In these kinds of conditions, you never know what’s going to happen,” Eduardo admits. “You must be alert and aware of your surroundings.”

As January’s relentless rains battered California roadways and caused numerous roadway casualties, Jan’s was dispatched to

Responding Equipment

recover a Lexus that swerved off Interstate 605.

“We had gotten a call from CHP for a heavy duty,” Eduardo related. “I was first to go out and take pictures.” After surveying the situation, he realized that some serious challenges would be involved in the recovery.

“I saw that the Lexus had gone over the side of the hill,” he said. “It was pretty much on its side, on top of a fence.”

Fortunately, the driver of the Lexus walked away from the casualty vehicle, and was picked up when Jan’s rotator arrived, a 1040 Century on a 2019 Peterbilt 389 with Steven Coffee manning the wheel. Eduardo readied himself to go down to the casualty. He first suited up in his PPE: rain gear, gloves, helmet and waterproof boots.

“It was pouring down really hard,” he recalled. “I could see the hill was slippery and muddy. The ground was soft to the touch.”

The two towmen made a plan on how they were going to get the casualty, keeping in mind that they didn’t have much room to work. And also keeping in mind the unsafe roadway conditions, where all lanes were open, except one.

“The challenge in the rain is that the visibility is not great and poses a threat to us,” Eduardo observed. “Some drivers tend not to be able to see out of their windshields and our bright lights don’t help them.”

Fully garbed, Eduardo went down with the winch, lowering himself over the mud-soaked hill amid the pelting rain, and rappelled down to the smashed Lexus where he found the airbags deployed, the front windshield damaged, the roof caved in, and the driver’s side front door broken. “It was a total loss,” he noted.

Next he secured the front and back wheels on the passenger side with slings connected to the rotator’s winch line.

“We started working it slowly because when it rains the car tends to slide on top of the mud,” he said. “We were watching each other and made sure we had communication, making eye contact before Steven started pulling on the winch or doing anything with the boom work.”

As he manipulated the controls of the rotator, the casualty was brought up and safely put down on the side of the freeway. Eduardo then moved his 2017 International with a 21-foot Century flatbed in front of the casualty, and winched it up onto the flatbed, trying to avoid any further damage to the car.

“A lot of people think we just pick up cars and transport. That’s not the case,” Eduardo said. “We are out there risking our lives. We are out there saving people from cars. We are out there recovering vehicles in a way that other people don’t want to do.”

Thanks to the skills of towmen like Martinez and Coffee, additional accidents were avoided by exercising proper procedures with alert situational awareness.