Tennessee: Event Raises Awareness To Danger For Roadside Assistance Workers
Slow down. Move over. These are four simple words that Walter Perlotto and other roadside workers want motorists to automatically remember as soon as they see the flashing lights of an emergency or utility vehicle.
"It's a two second thing. Slow down and move ove," said Perlotto, who works as a tow truck driver with Tony's Wrecker Service, of Bulls Gap.
"I have a family. Everyone of us has a family ... that we want to go home to after our shift ends," Perlotto said.
On Saturday evening, Perlotto was joined in the parking lot at Big Lots by several of his fellow drivers and others, including utility workers and law enforcement officers, whose jobs frequently have them standing alongside roadways.
The event was organized by Perlotto to help bring attention to the life-threatening danger that roadside workers face when motorists don't obey the traffic laws that require drivers to slow down and move over when there are law enforcement, road crews or utility vehicles along the roadway.
In 2005, there were 390 workers killed in "struck-by" incidents, accounting for 7 percent of all fatal occupational injuries, according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
In 2006, Tennessee lawmakers passed the "Move Over" bill, which made it state law for motorists passing stopped emergency vehicles to move over into the adjacent lane of traffic, when safe to do so, or alternatively to slow down for emergency vehicles.
In 2011, the Tennessee law was expanded to include utility service equipment.
The penalty for violating the "Move Over Law" in Tennessee is a maximum fine of up to $500 and possibly up to 30 days in jail.
Chris Hilliard, who works for Casper's Wrecker Service, says he has frequently had to jump away from speeding cars while attempting to do his job.
"I've had to slide across hoods and jump onto the back of rollbacks," Hilliard said.
Retired tow truck driver Mark Hutchins was also on hand at Saturday's event to show his support.
"When your loved ones are broken down out there in the middle of the road ... isn't it nice to know that there is someone who will come out there to help them?" Hutchens said. "How many people, though, want to come out there if it is a killing field?"
When he was working as a tow truck driver, Hutchens said his shirt was once ripped by a vehicle's side mirror as it was passing by. He is thankful that it wasn't his life ripped from him.
To demonstrate how close workers often come to oncoming traffic, Hutchens stood between a tow truck and a car parked at the approximate distance it would pass by.
Mere inches separated Hutchens from the car as he opened the gear box on the side of the tow truck. He said workers have to brace themselves so they won't be sucked against the passing vehicle due to the drafting air.
He admits such an experience is terrifying.
Perlotto agreed. "We don't just use these lights because we like flashing lights," he said. "We use these lights to let people know, 'Hey! We are working here! Slow down!'"
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