Tow Truck Driver Hit By Vehicle
Daniel Lande was hit by a truck Monday night as he worked to tow a vehicle for its owner.
“I remember the impact and flying about 25 feet in the air and coming to when I hit the ground,” Lande said from his hospital bed.
Lande’s pelvis was shattered in the incident, and he has spent the past three days recovering.
“I’m in pain, and when I cough, it hurts,” Lande said.
He remembers police coming to his hospital room, questioning him about the accident.
“I remember asking if they gave the man a ticket and they said no, but he was thinking of giving me a ticket,” Lande said.
Lande was shocked that police were considering giving him the ticket.
Video taken at the scene by a KRDO NEWSCHANNEL 13 photographer shows Lande did have his emergency lights on and placed cones around the vehicle he was about to tow.
“He told me it doesn’t matter my lights were on, because they would have to be red and blue for them to move over,” Lande said.
Under the Allen Rose Law, named after a tow truck driver killed while trying to tow a vehicle, drivers are not allowed to interfere with a tow truck driver’s job. Drivers must also pull over to the furthest lane when a tow truck driver is in the process of towing any vehicle.
“The law focuses primarily on highways and emergency vehicles, where you have room to move to the left and slow down,” said Lt. Thomas Harris, with the Colorado Springs police.
Harris said Motor City Way isn’t designed to allow vehicles to move to the left lane.
“In this instance, it’s a surface street and you have a curved grade, and at night you have lights coming into a driver’s eyes,” Harris said.
Harris said Lande did have his emergency lights on but that he also had his headlights on too, which could have blinded the truck driver.
He added that Lande wasn’t wearing any reflective material, but Harris admitted that there are no laws requiring him to wear reflective gear.
Lande also said there still was a little sunlight left and the driver should have seen him.
“It’s unfortunate that somebody got hurt, but it’s an accident,” said Harris.
Lande was released from the hospital late Wednesday night. He worries that he won’t be able to pay all of his medical bills, which are at an estimated $30,000.
“I won’t be able to work for I don’t know how long, maybe two or three months. It’s probably going to put me out of business,” Lande said.
Police said they don’t plan to ticket either driver right now, and Lande will have to take the issue to civil court to get damages for his medical bills.
