I support and applaud what you did
HOWEVER
I am sorry to say that in Tennessee you probably would have had vehicle
impounded and had to spend dollars with lawyer to get it back. Plus you
would have received several tickets.
Under Tenn. law if is public road - you cannot make recovery without
presence of law enforcement officer of some kind. ( and I think even then
you have to be tow truck operator with valid tow permits)
I know of one case where recovery was made from field adjacent to accident
scene and ticket was still issued.
Justification in this case was that vehicle had hit concrete post that
designates right of way and had broken post. Driver was liable for repair
This is not to say that --good old boys-- do not do this.
Everette
>From my cold dead hands
___
>Subject: Re: [MV] Damned dangerous things...
> Some people just don't know any better.
>
> I was once helping a couple of local teenagers with my M35A2 and ran
across
> just such an individual, actually a couple of them. The kids had been out
> raising a little ruckus with their jacked up 4x4, and ran off a dirt road,
> in an uphill curve, down into a 30 to 40 foot gully. They missed all the
> trees, but had no way to get it back out. Too scared to call their
parents
> for help or a wrecker.
>
> Some of their friends had been trying to pull them out with another pickup
> without luck, and they just outright asked me for help at a service
station,
> where I was fueling up. We had my deuce positioned diagonally across this
> road, backed to the edge, with a chain through the pintle hook to the
> stranded truck. The road was being blocked by the friends on both sides
> above and below, and stopping traffic. A couple of loud mouthed, middle
> aged no-brainers drove around and past the guys above my location and
> verbally and rudely insisted on us getting out of their way! I simply
told
> them to just push the deuce out of the way if they could, or wait until we
> were done. He actually started to take a go at the front axle, but
stopped
> and backed up, and tried to squeeze between the front end and the ditch
> bank. He climbed his right front up on the bank and as he made a move
> forward, his truck slid sideways onto the end of the deuce's front bumper.
> Well, he was hung. And he was tee'd off. And he was screaming and
> shouting. He insisted that I move my truck, I told him that he got his
> truck stuck on my bumper, and he could dammed well get it off himself, or
> wait until I was done, like I had told him in the first place. The entire
> time, he was still behind the steering wheel, cause the bumper was now
> wedged deep into the drivers door. He became more enraged, threw his Ford
> into gear and rocked it back and forth trying to get loose! He cut a
ragged
> gash into the door, the cab, and the length of the long wheel base truck
by
> the time he got free. He drove off throwing dirt and gravel all over, as
he
> barely missed the boys down below.
>
> The boys and I continued our efforts. I pulled forward about a foot and
> snapped the first chain that the boys had been using. I backed up and got
> out my own 1/2" towing chains and rehooked to the truck. I found that the
> transmission crossmember was firmly wedged between rocks. We used a
> highlift jack to raise the truck up and free of the rocks, and placed a
> short 2 x 12 board to act as a skid beneath the crossmember.
>
> When we got back up to the road, we had a sheriffs deputy sitting there
with
> the two loud mouthed idiots. They were insisting that I had run into them
> with my deuce, and demanding satisfaction. I never got to say a word,
the
> teenagers flew into telling the story of how it had happened, some
onlookers
> joined in with their versions of it, and told how the fools had nearly
> driven down one of the other boys. The deputy still hadn't said a word to
> me, walked to the front of the truck, picked some shreds of sheet metal
> off the back corner of the bumper and commented that the paint wasn't even
> scratched on it. He looked at the torn up ditch and bank, and he looked
at
> the loud mouths truck and simply said, "You'd have been better off
waiting."
> He then added another insult by turning to me and asking whether I'd like
to
> press charges against them for the damage done to my truck! I told him
that
> my truck wasn't hurt, but asked whether it was possible to have them
locked
> up for their own self protection. Everybody laughed good, and the deputy
> told them that they should leave now.
>
> The deputy hung around while I pulled the pickup up on to the road. And
> asked how I had gotten into this situation. I told him that adventures
like
> this make life interesting. When he asked whether the driver ever thanked
> me, I had to admit to him that he didn't, but his friends did. Figure
that
> one out!
>
> So, some people just don't think, don't know any better, and are ignorant
to
> the extreme, all in the same day!
>
> HMV content: the deuce never spun a wheel, never broke idle, and was a
hero
> to one, and a dangerous obstacle to another.
>
> John Doherty
>
>
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>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Jan 02 2001 - 23:13:24 PST