On Thursday 12-22-2022, a rare ice storm moved over the Eugene and Lane County area. When winter storms hit our local area, towing companies are charged with a very difficult task. It is vital we help but without getting our own equipment stuck. Our tow trucks have excellent equipment including chains and other tire traction devices. We make a point of testing all this equipment in the months before it has a chance to snow every year so we are prepared. Despite this, our trucks can get just as stuck as any other vehicle contributing to the problem and leaving us one less piece of equipment we can use to help.
When it snows or ices, we use our fleet as strategically as possible to help as many people as possible. This means the first places we cannot serve are places with steep elevations. Also, the number of events called in skyrockets. The regional police dispatch relayed that their average number of vehicle accidents per hour is ~2 (two). The vehicle accidents that the police were able to respond to jumped up to 44 per hour following the ice that started to form on the roads.
On the 22th we were contacted by our customer to recover their rolled over semi on I-5 south bound. We coordinated with ODOT and were told that we could start the recovery at 7:00 pm and had to have everything completed before 7:00 am. This was the best time to complete the recovery and it would have the least impact on traffic. We had to unload all the cargo by hand before rolling the semi back on its wheels. This was a long night but the crew handled themselves very well and we completed the recovery in the time frame ODOT wanted. The relief this operation gave to travelers on I-5 was significant and represented the most amount of people we could help using our resources. We performed a similar recovery the next night. We appreciate the opportunity to share some of the reasons behind long wait times during winter storms.
