A gentleman came in to where I work recently, and struck up a conversation while he was waiting. After a while, it turned to the fact that I used to drive tow trucks, which means I try to drive more safely, having seen the results of reckless (i.e., wrecked) diving. That, of course, set off a chain reaction in my head which lasted most of the way home and ended up here.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and while that may be true, I would argue that those thousand words are neither cohesive nor compelling. Consider this picture:
Looks ugly, huh? You can tell it was a pretty bad accident, and people probably got hurt. If you have enough time, you could probably tell the picture was taken in a dirt lot where other wrecked cars have been bought and stored. If you're a connoisseur of tow trucks, you might even be able to tell how it's hooked up to the truck that's dragging it. BUT. There's a huge story that you're missing out on, and that's where the human element comes in.
Story 1:
As a driver for a total loss insurance company, you're given certain information about the cars you're assigned to pick up, and you can usually make pretty good assumptions off that. "Front end damage" on cars that are front-wheel drive means that you can probably tow them on the stinger (tow bar), rather than having to put them on the bed of your truck. On the day I picked this one up, I had a run of four cars: one front-wheel drive car with rear end damage (has to go on the bed), two four-wheel-drive trucks with various damage (has to go on the bed), and a minivan with front-end damage. Since the last one was the only one that had a free-rolling axle, i.e., one that wouldn't burn out the transmission while pulling it down the road, I saved it for last. When I pulled up to the tow yard where it was stored, my truck was loaded up with one ruined car on the bed over the cab, and two trucks that barely fit on the bed behind the cab. I was looking forward to an easy hookup of a minivan, and heading home within 10-15 minutes.
Instead, the yard worker pulls this wreck out. Both front doors are hanging on by a thread, the hood was flipped back over (and through) the windshield, and the sliding door on the passenger's side won't close, because the frame has been cut by the jaws of life. The steering wheels is in the driver's seat, and the whole thing looks like... well, you can see. There go my dreams of a quick hookup.
Story 2:
I stared at it for a minute or two in utter disbelief. This? This was "front end damage?" The wheel wells for the back tires were mangled and sticking out, and I wasn't sure if the parking brake was on or not, because the lever for it was buried under the dashboard somewhere. The guy manning the yard was grinning at me, though, and I'll be danged if I was gonna give up and go home without my full load. I backed my truck up to this mess, and extended my stinger (tow bar). I couldn't get it under the frame of the car, because that was resting on the ground, but I managed to push it under what was left of the front bumper, lift the front end up, and rolled it back and forth. Glory be: the back wheels rolled freely.
With much caution, in case the bumper gave way or it rolled free of my bar, I stuck my head near the front tire, and found something to hook my chains to. I did the same on the other side, then shook the bar back and forth quickly so the car slid backwards, and was resting partially on the chains, partially on the stinger bar. I shook it a few more times, to be sure it wouldn't come loose, then attached safety chains to anything I could find. Here's what a proper tow with a stinger should look like:
Here's mine again:
I wasn't too thrilled with the results, but it looked like it would make the trip, as long as I didn't make any sudden turns. I used every strap, bungie, and tie down I had, as well as some rope the tow yard had laying around, and tied all the doors, the roof, the hood, and the cut-off windshield braces together. I shook it a few more times, and headed out.
Story 3:
What's harder to see is that the last truck on my bed was barely holding on with its back wheels, and was hanging off the bed by a good 4-5 feet. Since I had to lift the minivan up so high to clear the damaged undercarriage, my stinger bar was fully entered, and still barely cleared that last truck. Overall, from cab to the end of that minivan, I was running at least 50-55 feet- nearly the length of a tractor-trailer. Since I was so heavily loaded, I drove just under the speed limit; unfortunately, since it had taken me so long to hook up, I was running into (ha) the beginning of rush hour.
Even taking the back roads, I was still seeing a good number of cars catching up behind me, but I didn't want to make it worse, so I stayed under the speed limit. I was keeping an eye on the back of my load, too, in case the back tires locked up suddenly, or unseen friction started smoking up the wheels (I have had both happen before). As such, I had ample opportunity to see car after car speed up, go to pass me, then slow down and reconsider when they saw what I was hauling. Eventually, they'd go to pass me again, but give me this really cautious look as they did; I just smiled and waved. I'd like to think I gave some people some food for thought that day, and maybe saved a life or limb or two.
Story 4:
While I was hooking up, back at the yard, the guy on duty gave me the story behind the wreck. Sometimes these are a fun little story of justice: some kid tooling around in daddy's car, driving stupidly, and wrecking the car but walking away. Other times, it's a solemn tale of kids paying for their parents' drinking habits, or people just being in the wrong place at the wrong time: a car hits a patch of water too fast, spins, and rams into someone driving safely, passing by. This one was a mix of the two: the oldest kid driving the younger ones to sports, driving recklessly to look cool, and lost control. The car hit a guardrail, then a fence post, then finally flipped, rolled, and hit a wall.
In a stroke of perverse luck, the driver wasn't wearing a seatbelt, and got thrown before the steering wheel was embedded in the driver's seat. The front passenger was wearing theirs, and they were taken to the hospital after being cut free. The kids in the back were wearing theirs and, while shaken and very scared, got away with only cuts and bruises. I don't know the final story on the driver, but I'm betting they'll be more careful in the future.
Sobering stuff, huh? This is by no means the worst car I've had to pick up; I can tell stories ranging from a pile of brains left on the back seat, to a puddle of blood- still liquid after four days- in the center console, to a burnt shell with finger bones still sitting in the front seat. It is, however, one of the worst ones I've picked up that was still able to be pulled on the stinger, and I felt pretty proud that I was able to get it all back in one run.
Mini story 4: When I got back to the yard, the guy who checks cars in was still there, and I asked for a picture really fast. It was almost closing time, and I was sure the other guys wouldn't believe that I'd gotten that thing to roll on my stinger, and since this was before camera phones, I wanted proof. The guy snapped a picture, and told me he'd print it out the next day. It's just on plain copier paper, not photo stock, but I keep it as a reminder of what I managed to pull off.
Now, that's probably pretty close to a thousand words, but would you have gotten all that from the picture? Humans are built on stories, and I love telling them. Maybe that's why I find myself in odd jobs- because that's where the stories are. Cheers!
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and while that may be true, I would argue that those thousand words are neither cohesive nor compelling. Consider this picture:
Looks ugly, huh? You can tell it was a pretty bad accident, and people probably got hurt. If you have enough time, you could probably tell the picture was taken in a dirt lot where other wrecked cars have been bought and stored. If you're a connoisseur of tow trucks, you might even be able to tell how it's hooked up to the truck that's dragging it. BUT. There's a huge story that you're missing out on, and that's where the human element comes in.
Story 1:
As a driver for a total loss insurance company, you're given certain information about the cars you're assigned to pick up, and you can usually make pretty good assumptions off that. "Front end damage" on cars that are front-wheel drive means that you can probably tow them on the stinger (tow bar), rather than having to put them on the bed of your truck. On the day I picked this one up, I had a run of four cars: one front-wheel drive car with rear end damage (has to go on the bed), two four-wheel-drive trucks with various damage (has to go on the bed), and a minivan with front-end damage. Since the last one was the only one that had a free-rolling axle, i.e., one that wouldn't burn out the transmission while pulling it down the road, I saved it for last. When I pulled up to the tow yard where it was stored, my truck was loaded up with one ruined car on the bed over the cab, and two trucks that barely fit on the bed behind the cab. I was looking forward to an easy hookup of a minivan, and heading home within 10-15 minutes.
Instead, the yard worker pulls this wreck out. Both front doors are hanging on by a thread, the hood was flipped back over (and through) the windshield, and the sliding door on the passenger's side won't close, because the frame has been cut by the jaws of life. The steering wheels is in the driver's seat, and the whole thing looks like... well, you can see. There go my dreams of a quick hookup.
Story 2:
I stared at it for a minute or two in utter disbelief. This? This was "front end damage?" The wheel wells for the back tires were mangled and sticking out, and I wasn't sure if the parking brake was on or not, because the lever for it was buried under the dashboard somewhere. The guy manning the yard was grinning at me, though, and I'll be danged if I was gonna give up and go home without my full load. I backed my truck up to this mess, and extended my stinger (tow bar). I couldn't get it under the frame of the car, because that was resting on the ground, but I managed to push it under what was left of the front bumper, lift the front end up, and rolled it back and forth. Glory be: the back wheels rolled freely.
With much caution, in case the bumper gave way or it rolled free of my bar, I stuck my head near the front tire, and found something to hook my chains to. I did the same on the other side, then shook the bar back and forth quickly so the car slid backwards, and was resting partially on the chains, partially on the stinger bar. I shook it a few more times, to be sure it wouldn't come loose, then attached safety chains to anything I could find. Here's what a proper tow with a stinger should look like:
Here's mine again:
I wasn't too thrilled with the results, but it looked like it would make the trip, as long as I didn't make any sudden turns. I used every strap, bungie, and tie down I had, as well as some rope the tow yard had laying around, and tied all the doors, the roof, the hood, and the cut-off windshield braces together. I shook it a few more times, and headed out.
Story 3:
What's harder to see is that the last truck on my bed was barely holding on with its back wheels, and was hanging off the bed by a good 4-5 feet. Since I had to lift the minivan up so high to clear the damaged undercarriage, my stinger bar was fully entered, and still barely cleared that last truck. Overall, from cab to the end of that minivan, I was running at least 50-55 feet- nearly the length of a tractor-trailer. Since I was so heavily loaded, I drove just under the speed limit; unfortunately, since it had taken me so long to hook up, I was running into (ha) the beginning of rush hour.
Even taking the back roads, I was still seeing a good number of cars catching up behind me, but I didn't want to make it worse, so I stayed under the speed limit. I was keeping an eye on the back of my load, too, in case the back tires locked up suddenly, or unseen friction started smoking up the wheels (I have had both happen before). As such, I had ample opportunity to see car after car speed up, go to pass me, then slow down and reconsider when they saw what I was hauling. Eventually, they'd go to pass me again, but give me this really cautious look as they did; I just smiled and waved. I'd like to think I gave some people some food for thought that day, and maybe saved a life or limb or two.
Story 4:
While I was hooking up, back at the yard, the guy on duty gave me the story behind the wreck. Sometimes these are a fun little story of justice: some kid tooling around in daddy's car, driving stupidly, and wrecking the car but walking away. Other times, it's a solemn tale of kids paying for their parents' drinking habits, or people just being in the wrong place at the wrong time: a car hits a patch of water too fast, spins, and rams into someone driving safely, passing by. This one was a mix of the two: the oldest kid driving the younger ones to sports, driving recklessly to look cool, and lost control. The car hit a guardrail, then a fence post, then finally flipped, rolled, and hit a wall.
In a stroke of perverse luck, the driver wasn't wearing a seatbelt, and got thrown before the steering wheel was embedded in the driver's seat. The front passenger was wearing theirs, and they were taken to the hospital after being cut free. The kids in the back were wearing theirs and, while shaken and very scared, got away with only cuts and bruises. I don't know the final story on the driver, but I'm betting they'll be more careful in the future.
Sobering stuff, huh? This is by no means the worst car I've had to pick up; I can tell stories ranging from a pile of brains left on the back seat, to a puddle of blood- still liquid after four days- in the center console, to a burnt shell with finger bones still sitting in the front seat. It is, however, one of the worst ones I've picked up that was still able to be pulled on the stinger, and I felt pretty proud that I was able to get it all back in one run.
Mini story 4: When I got back to the yard, the guy who checks cars in was still there, and I asked for a picture really fast. It was almost closing time, and I was sure the other guys wouldn't believe that I'd gotten that thing to roll on my stinger, and since this was before camera phones, I wanted proof. The guy snapped a picture, and told me he'd print it out the next day. It's just on plain copier paper, not photo stock, but I keep it as a reminder of what I managed to pull off.
Now, that's probably pretty close to a thousand words, but would you have gotten all that from the picture? Humans are built on stories, and I love telling them. Maybe that's why I find myself in odd jobs- because that's where the stories are. Cheers!
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