Signature 600 ISX Cummins engine brake calamity.

I honestly have to question where this self control comes from with me...usually I'm not that passive. The only logical explanation I can come up with is age has taken over.

 

Nope, the red one kept going like nobody's business...disappeared like a flash. Left his competitor to bleed. That's how those jerks operate I guess.

 

Ain't gonna be a quick process I can see that coming. Stopped in to the Mass State Police barracks for a copy of the accident report. They said it's be Friday at least, before the trooper has it prepared. The accident was last Sunday, so 5+ days to do that. Meanwhile that's the #1 most important document I could possibly need for everything and everyone involved.

Went to the towing company's yard with my boy's tractor to fetch the trailer. They let us have it which was a plus. I asked the owner of the company himself, "what would it cost me if I were to remove my truck today"..? He replied, "well, between the tow and the storage at $150.00/day, we're at $13,000.00 right now. They towed my truck and loaded trailer about 9 miles, that cost $12,000.00. OK, I know wreckers are expensive and I'm in the wrong business, I get that. What I don't get is, the excessive damage they did to the truck as they towed it.

Here's the proof. I was standing right there as the wrecker operator(s) backed to the front of my truck, extended the under reach and stopped it even with the smashed up bumper at the bottom of the radiator. Used 2 chains and went from the front axle to the drawbar, lifted the truck up like that and began crushing everything like it was normal. I wanted to say "WTH are you guys doing?" but the DOT cop that treated me good was their buddy, so I kept quiet. As I rode with that DOT cop following the wrecker, the cop kept saying, "man, these guys are the best, look at how he made that turn...look at how that wrecker goes with that load..." I was burning up silently listening to this stuff, but kept quiet.

By the time they went 8 miles they had to stop and reset the chains because from the surging for and aft due to the way they hooked it, the metals and fiberglass between the chains and truck had all shrunken and crushed enough that the chains were loose and they almost dropped the truck in the street.

Now anybody here that has some experience and knowledge about towing all know that the standard procedure is to put the under reach arm under the axle, put the correct set of forks on, grab the axle, 2 safety chains (or straps I've seen and used myself when I help my buddy with his 3/4 million dollar rotator) wrapped around the axle to keep it from jumping out of the forks. Why on God's green earth they chained it like that to let it surge back and forth puzzles me. But again, they're tied in with the SP so you can't say or do anything.

Here's the "before they hooked up and after they dropped it in their yard" pictures. Notice the grill and driver's side fender wasn't really hurt at the accident scene...sure was after they got done hacking it with the wrecker drawbar.

Would anybody call these guys for a tow? The unbelievable part of all this is, they're huge...over 80 trucks in western Massachusetts. 4 yards, have the Pike all sewn up, tied in with all the cops, etc. And this is the quality of work they do. Such a dog and pony show.

So here I sit, out of work/business...cops taking their sweet sweet time preparing the most important piece of paper I'll ever need to start this journey. Invoices for new tires and repairs from last week totaling over 3K dollars and no truck to generate revenue to pay them right now, and everybody just dragging along like it's no biggie. Tell me now, how fair is this to the working man? Not hardly.