Tow truck drivers reflect on highway risks

Tow truck drivers regularly find themselves in the same dangerous situations that state troopers do when responding to accident scenes.

Darkness, busy highways, bad weather and unsafe driving are regular threats faced by tow drivers, troopers and other emergency personnel at accident scenes.

A state trooper was hit and killed by a vehicle Sunday night on Interstate 25 near Castle Rock. The trooper was investigating a crash at the time. A man believed to have driven the vehicle that hit the trooper was arrested and faces several charges.

Julian Cisneros, regional manager of Auto Towing in Colorado Springs, said he has had close calls in his ten-year career.

“Every time a truck goes by, you feel the sweater pull up from the wind, and you can swear you’re almost getting hit,” he said. “If you see a police officer on the side of the road, usually the people will move over. If you put a tow truck in place of that police officer’s cruiser, they do not.”

Colorado has a “Move Over Law” enacted in 2005 that requires drivers to slow down, stop, pull over or move into opposite lanes when the flashing lights of emergency vehicles are seen.

Violators can be fined nearly $170 and lose four points off their driver’s license.

All 50 states have similar laws, according to Maile Gray of Drive Smart Colorado.

“I see cars moving over, but I’m not so sure they know it’s a law as much as maybe they think they’re doing a common courtesy,” Gray said. “Utility workers, construction trucks, anybody who has a light bar that’s working on the top of their roof, you need to move over.”

Gray said law enforcement deaths at crash scenes have declined since “Move Over” laws took effect, but tow truck drivers continue to be killed at the rate of one every six days.