by Jim “Buck” Sorrenti
On February 11, 2021, hell broke loose on I-35W in Fort Worth around morning rush hour. 135 vehicles were involved in a massive wreck, leaving six people dead and dozens injured. The scene stretched for nearly a mile in the southbound lanes of the interstate, north of downtown. The roads were so bad firefighters had to use their own salt and sand to get to the scene.
Texas was amidst a frigid, horrific weather pattern and the highway became a sheet of ice from freezing rain that had fallen overnight and into the early morning hours. This led to a massive chain-reaction pileup, which appeared to have started at around 6:15 am, with cars slipping, sliding and crashing into each other. Multiple 18-wheelers, also involved in the pileup, crashed violently into and in some cases rolled over passenger vehicles.
I-35 became a massive search and rescue operation with temperatures making it challenging. People developing hypothermia was a concern and rescuers were slipping on ice while searching for survivors in the wreckage.
Paramedics brought in buses to keep the survivors warm in the freezing temperatures and a reunification center was set up for people involved in the pileup to reconnect with their families. Fort Worth Police deployed more than 80 vehicles to block traffic and assist wrecker companies removing cars from the pileup.
The emergency response was just as massive. In the midst of this tragedy towers answered the call responding with an awesome display of manpower and equipment and were on scene working alongside 80 police officers and close to 70 firefighters. Towers not only cleared the mangled wreckage, but lifted thousands of pounds of crushed vehicles so that firefighters could rescue people that were trapped.
In charge of this effort was James Bennett Jr., the owner of Beard’s Towing, the biggest of the many tow companies on the rotation handling this mess. James Jr. is the “Incident Management Commander” for the Traffic Incident Management System in the area. He oversaw coordinating the response of close to 90 tow trucks that were on scene helping with the crash.
James Jr explained, “We were called in by Fort Worth PD and Fire. If you have something that weighs from 45,000 to 80,000 pounds on top of something that weighs less than a ton, we need to be able to remove that carefully and safely so firefighters can get in there and do their job.”
This was a tremendous undertaking with towers collaborating with other first responders in a coordinated recovery and rescue effort to clear the chaos with an impressive array of equipment. Tow companies involved were Beard’s Towing, Texas Towing, A-1 Wrecker Service, Edd’s Towing, ABC Wrecker, Cornish Wrecker, Perrfect Towing, Milliner Wrecker, Guy Simmons Towing, Bevins Wrecker Service, Lonestar Towing and Advanced Recovery.
James Jr added, “As far as individual drivers operating rollbacks, they were definitely too many of them to know all of their names. We reference all of our towers as "The Fort Worth Towing Alliance."
Heavy-duty wreckers and rotators lined the scene to lift vehicles stacked on top of other vehicles. All of the heavy-duty rigging of the casualties that were on top of other casualties and victims was done by James Bennett Jr., Richard Knadle, Allen Knadle, Jac Clay and Chris Akers.
For each of the fatalities involved the rigging was done by James Bennett Jr. He explained, “To rig some of the casualties I had to crawl over and actually lay on some of the victims to get the rigging in the right place so that it would not drop and damage the victim further.”
James Jr informed, “On the picture where you see the rotator lifting two vehicles at once...The reason for that was due to the victim underneath the white van. The driver side door was ripped open increased underneath the van with a corner of it going into the victims back. The black Toyota pick up was wedged on top of the van in another vehicle pushing down on the victim. The rigging was done so that we could lift the black pick up in the van simultaneously without it dropping and damaging the victim any further. If we had moved one of the vehicles at a time it would have dragged the victim.”
In total, towers cleared 135 vehicles and recovered six victims in 16 hours. James Jr and his crew were first on scene and were there for the duration. He stated, “We were out there the whole time. We were the last to leave.”
Show Yours @ TIWDo you have a recovery to share with TIW readers? Send some pics and info to our Field Editor Jim “Buck” Sorrenti at jimchaos69@yahoo.com; your story may even be selected for print in American Towman magazine!
by Jim “Buck” Sorrenti
On February 1, 2021 Lanser Garage & Towing Inc was called by the Wisconsin State Patrol for a wrecked tractor-trailer. Third generation tower Jamon Ingelse advised, “This was an empty T/T unit out on I43 northbound at 138 MM in Cleveland, Wisconsin. The Volvo tractor tandem bent 90° to the cab around a tree. The trailer stayed attached.”
Jamon responded with his 2009 Mack with a Vulcan V100 50-ton equipped with a SP850 side pull unit, along with operator Scott Winkle in their 2018 Mack with a Century 9055 50-ton and operator Hunter Gottschalk with their 2018 IHC 12 Series rollback.
Jamon informed, “This accident happened two days prior to us doing the job, in negative temperatures and wind chill to -40. Multiple semi accidents were left to do a scheduled recovery throughout the entire county in cooperation/coordination with Wisconsin State Patrol, Manitowoc Sheriff's Dept and Highway department. Recovery day was still high temps below zero.”
Due to wind, ice and blinding conditions, the semi lost control, sliding down the hill and jack-knifing, hitting the tree on the passenger side ahead of the tandem. At the point of impact the tandem bent 90° around the tree with the trailer still attached behind the tree. The entire unit was approximately 60 feet down a hill with the trailer parallel to the interstate.
The Lanser recovery team positioned the Century 9055 forward of the wreck to winch out after it was removed from the tree. The Vulcan V100 turned around and faced the opposite direction of traffic to be in the correct position to remove the wreck from the tree and be in the right position to towing to Lanser’s holding facility.
“The V100 was rigged to the front axle area and to the fifth wheel area with separate lines to straighten the Volvo out and "unwrap" it from the tree,” said Jamon. “After it was clear of the tree, our 9055 rigged to winch unit to the interstate as the V100 stayed hooked to the fifth wheel plate area and re-rigged the second line to the rear of the trailer.”
As the entire unit approached the interstate, the Vulcan V100 winched the rear of the trailer onto the shoulder of the interstate. They used the Century 9055 to separate the units and re-positioned to tow the trailer and the V100 backed up to the rear of the Volvo.
Using a cut-off saw, the crew removed broken, bent and twisted metal and plastic to assist with the tow to Lanser. The Volvo was chained together from the rear tandems to transmission cross members with support blocking under cross members and frame rails where possible to keep it together during transport.
Jamon explained, “The unit was towed approximately 35 miles to our storage/holding facility where a salvage yard, contracted through the insurance, came and cut the unit into manageable pieces for transport to Minnesota. Total time was 3 hours and only one lane was closed for this recovery. Great work with everyone involved.”
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Lanser Garage & Towing Inc, based in Belgium, Wisconsin, was founded by George and Grace Lanser in 1951. The family-owned company is currently owned by George's daughter Donna and son in law, Randy Ingelse, with their son, Jamon Ingelse, representing the very involved third generation.
Lanser handles light- and heavy-duty towing and recovery, local and long distance and also offer forklift sales, rental and service. They are proud members of the Wisconsin Towing Association.
Show Yours @ TIWDo you have a recovery to share with TIW readers? Send some pics and info to our Field Editor Jim “Buck” Sorrenti at jimchaos69@yahoo.com; your story may even be selected for print in American Towman magazine!
by Jim “Buck” Sorrenti
On November 1, 2020, Janeway Towing was dispatched for a tractor trailer jack knifed into the left guard rail.
Janeway owner Jamie Dougherty informed, “This was on Interstate 476 Northbound as it prepares to cross the Schuylkill River at mile marker 16.7. From the images obtained by the traffic cameras, two heavy-duty wreckers, rotator, recovery support truck, telehandler with forks and bucket, traffic control and emergency spill clean up were dispatched to the scene.”
Jamie, along with operators Rick Royles, Brian Bowe, Mike Notes, Joe Rudnick and Craig Amendt responded to the scene with their Century 1075 75-ton rotator, Zips RSB unit, V100 Vulcan 50-ton heavy, 7035 Century 35-ton heavy, JLG Telehandler and a Century 12 Series LCG carrier.
When the Janeway recovery team arrived on scene, they observed that the fuel tanks were breached and leaking fuel as well as the oil pan spilling fuel and motor oil. The recovery could not begin until a safe traffic pattern was set.
Once the traffic pattern was set, they first separated the trailer from the tractor, rotated it around and set it in the center travel lane where it was hooked to the awaiting Century 7035 35-ton heavy-duty wrecker and towed back to Janeway for storage.
Jamie informed, “The guardrail was tangled throughout the tractor and in between the dual tires, so we had to cut away the guardrail from the tractor and surrounding area. We placed it across the roadway for the guardrail crew to haul away.”
The recovery team than rigged the tractor, lifted and rotated it off of the guardrail posts into the center lane and prepped it for towing with the Vulcan V100 50-ton to Janeway for storage.
With the casualty hauled away, the crew got busy cleaning up all debris and swept the roadway.
Jamie stated, “We were limited on time so didn’t get to take too many pics. It was hurry up and get the job done and we did!”
James “Jamie” H. Dougherty, Jr., the President and CEO of Janeway Towing in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, was born to be a tower. Jane Dougherty, Jamie's mother, the Jane in Janeway Towing, said he ate, slept and dreamt tow trucks since he was 3 years old. If you have the pleasure of knowing him, you know he is an insane workaholic. He has a great passion and takes great pride in his chosen profession.
Since Janeway Towing was established in 1980, Jamie and his crew, all certified WreckMasters, have handled towing, transportation, consulting and have recovered anything and everything they’ve been called to respond to.
Show Yours @ TIWDo you have a recovery to share with TIW readers? Send some pics and info to our Field Editor Jim “Buck” Sorrenti at jimchaos69@yahoo.com; your story may even be selected for print in American Towman magazine!
By Randall C. Resch 
By George L. Nitti
By George L. Nitti
The 16 lb. STIHL PowerSweep™ attachment, which is part of the STIHL KombiSystem, features heavy-duty rubber flaps, acting like a squeegee on steroids. It cleans up caked dirt along roads and sidewalks, moves pebbles and sand from grassy turf, and even removes water and light snow from hard flat surfaces.
