Willow Spring towing now has a total of 3 rotator trucks in its fleet. This is perhaps more than any company on the east coast, and possibly the country. The rotator trucks make it possible for Willow Spring to recover overturned vehicles from places and situations that other companies simply cannot, and will not go.
This is a “routine” recovery of an overturned tractor and trailer. (There really is no “routine” recovery, as each one presents a unique challenge.) Look at these pictures in order, and see how the mess disappears as Willow Spring get the truck out of the road, the debris cleared, and the road back to normal function.
Willow Spring Towing recently recovered an overturned tanker at the intersection of Pickett Road, and Rt. 236 in Virginia. The accident occurred on August 28th, 2010. Willow Spring Towing successfully completed the difficult recovery which included avoiding hazardous material during the recovery, and aiding in the clean up of the material.
Now that Snowmageddon has been reduced to scattered piles of dirt and exhaust covered snow it is a good time to reflect on the wild winter of 2009-2010. Anytime it snows in the Washington DC metro area it is news. Just the mere mention of the possibility of snow creates anxiety around the beltway and sends people scurrying to the grocery store. It is a well known fact that if you are sufficiently stocked with milk, bread, and toilet paper you can survive whatever Mother Nature throws at you. However, all kidding aside this past winter was one that not only lived up to the normal snow storm mania hype, it actually exceeded it.
There is simply not much you can do about anything when one storm brings two feet of snow. And when you get storms of that magnitude while the original snow is still around . . . really it was unimaginable in our area before this past winter. People in cities like Chicago like to make fun of the way people in the DC area deal with snow, and some of it is much deserved but consider that the biggest single snowstorm in the history of Chicago was 23 inches in 1967. Chicago only had one other storm that totaled over 20 inches and that was 1999. By no means does the DC metro area get more snow than Chicago on a regular basis but we had more to contend with this year than Chicago and many other “cold weather” cities have ever had in their history.
Additionally the quantity of traffic and complicated traffic patterns we have in this area far exceed almost any metro area with the exception of maybe Los Angeles. How do think the infamous traffic jammed LA freeways would fare with back to back 20 inch snow storms? All this is to illustrate that this past winter was one of epic proportions and as the saying goes . . . when the going gets tough, the tough get going.
The employees of Willow Spring Towing & Recovery, Inc. shined brightly though those blinding snow storms. There is not a lot you can do in two feet of snow. Four wheel drives and even trucks with snow plows found the going impossible in many areas. Many towing companies chose to just shut down, they took their trucks of the road and their phones off the hook. No matter how bad things got Willow Spring never stopped answering the phone and continued to respond to all emergency calls.
Towing companies and their employees are too often the forgotten heroes when something like Snowmageddon comes along. People tend to think of the police, fire, rescue, and sometimes even the National Guard as those who brave the elements to continue serving. But during a severe snowstorm who do those services depend on when they need “rescued”. They call us. During those snow storms our company rescued stuck and wrecked snow plows, ambulances, fire trucks, and police vehicles. We rescued citizens who were in true need of emergency towing and recovery services. We cleared abandoned cars of the highways so snow plows could do their job. We pulled out trucks delivering heating fuel for desperate people in their homes, we pulled out vehicles trying to get services like electric up and running again.
The Willow Spring employees – - – dispatchers, drivers, mechanics, all went above and beyond the call of duty. Perhaps just as importantly their wives, girlfriends, and families were understanding that they had an extremely important job to do. We served our customers as best as we possibly could. It is so easy to forget what a struggle it was when the warm weather arrives and the sun is shining but we hope all of our customers will remember during the best of times our efforts to serve them in the worst of times. The wear and tear on equipment and employees is significant during major snow storms which is why many companies stop answering the phone, we have never done that and never will.
Willow Spring Towing & Recovery, Inc. is an emergency response company. That is what we do, what we pride ourselves on. We strive to put that pride in everything we do, from “routine towing” to major incident recoveries. As we look back on the winter that was, we wish to commend all our employees on a job well done and look forward to the challenges that 2010 has in store for us.
Woodrow W. Herring III
Vice President
On the home page of the Willow Spring Towing website you’ll see image previews of some of our recoveries. Currently there are only four, but we will constantly update them with current and past recoveries. Check out the ones we have, and stay tuned for more!
