Tow truck drivers push for additional lights to ensure safety

VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – They work in an extremely hazardous environment every day, and now tow truck drivers in BC are pushing for a change to the way you are alerted to their presence on the side of the road.

An online petition is picking up momentum, asking the provincial government for permission to add one or more additional colours to tow truck lights when working in an emergency situation on the roadside.

Operators argue tow trucks have lost visibility to motorists — in a sea of amber lights used for construction, turn signals and even street lights they are no longer noticed — and adding red or blue to their amber would allow drivers to easily identify an emergency situation quickly based on colour.

Veteran operator and tow company owner Keith McLachlan fully supports the idea.

“It’s not uncommon to feel the brush of a mudflap off a transport truck or a mirror scraping down the back of your jacket or bouncing off the back of your head as a result of people traveling too close, not slowing down and really not caring,” he tells News1130.

McLachlan lost an employee in 2006, struck and killed by a passing motorist on the highway just outside Vernon while providing emergency assistance. The truck’s full array of amber lights was illuminated. That led McLachlan to spearhead the movement to have “Slow Down Move Over ” legislation brought to BC. He believes adding another colour to tow truck emergency lights would save even more lives.

“Everything in the world seems to have an amber light on it, they are just everywhere, all over the place and people become totally immune to the fact that they are there. In a lot of cases we found, even out on the highway, when drivers approach vehicles that are working on the roadside with amber lights, they even want to speed up just to get through the work zone or get around it.”

And he says tow truck operators aren’t the only ones being put at risk.

“You arrive on scene and there may be a family outside the vehicle, they’re wandering around on the highway or on the side of the road and people are not slowing down. To be quite honest, I’m surprised there aren’t more people injured or killed while we are working on the roadside.”

Tow truck operators have been allowed to use red and amber lights in Washington State for decades and McLachlan says the state has only a fraction of the tow truck fatalities of BC.

“People respond to flashing red lights… they just do. A mixture of red and amber pattern on the wreckers would make a dramatic difference in the speed with which people pass us.”

McLachlan says when tow truck operators provide service at the roadside, it’s only momentary. “But those moments can some of the most dangerous of your day, your month or even your life. Changing up the lighting on these tow trucks would certainly make a difference, that’s for sure.”