Ohio police aim federal money at ensuring safety of tow-truck drivers

By Kathy Lynn Gray
The Columbus Dispatch

COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Columbus Police Division will use a portion of an annual $320,000 federal traffic-safety grant to ticket motorists who aren't careful around tow-truck drivers at the side of the road, police announced yesterday.

"We're trying to raise awareness," traffic bureau Sgt. Michael B. Smith said.

John A. "Jack" Carpenter, 55, of the North Side, was killed on Sept. 22 as he was hooking up a disabled car on the South Side. The veteran tow-truck driver was struck by a car that drifted off Rt. 104 near Lockbourne Road.

His death was the second for a tow-truck driver in Columbus in the past two years, so Smith decided to devote some of the traffic bureau's resources to the problem.

Drivers are required by law to change lanes if safety vehicles, including tow trucks, are parked on the side of the road, Smith said. If that's unsafe, drivers must slow down.

But many drivers don't know the law, especially the tow-truck part, he said.

Columbus police have received an annual grant from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for the past eight years.

Smith said the traffic bureau uses the money in three ways: about $60,000 to find and arrest impaired drivers; about $220,000 for sobriety checkpoints and a mobile blood-alcohol-content testing truck; and about $40,000 for selective enforcement efforts against speeders, distracted drivers and those who don't use seat belts.

This year, some of the selective-enforcement money will be directed toward the safety of tow-truck drivers, Smith said.

Vaughn J. Gobel, president of the Towing & Recovery Association of Ohio, said yesterday that crashes involving tow-truck drivers usually are preventable.

"They're happening because people aren't moving over," Gobel said. "Drivers are getting hit all over the country."

McClatchy-Tribune News Service