By CTAR Staff
Calgary, Alberta — December 27, 2013 — Tow trucking is a high-risk profession under normal circumstances, let alone during treacherous wintertime disasters that dump huge quantities of snow on the ground in cities such as Calgary, or more recently the environmentally traumatic ice-storms that left many across Ontario, Quebec and the Maritime provinces without power. In times like these, towers come to the forefront of relief efforts, helping to remove stranded vehicles from roadsides and getting motorists back on their way. But while towers like Calgary’s Yves Frenette actively rove the city looking for motorists in need, he’s also putting himself at risk.
Frenette works as a rover in the city-wide program that services four of Calgary’s major roads, including Deerfoot Trail, Glenmore Trail, Crowchild Trail and Memorial Drive. As a rover he and others working inside the program aim to clear away the scenes of minor collisions to ease congestion and assure the safety of the drivers.
With other vehicles speeding along roads and highways, Frenette routinely puts himself in bumper’s reach of imminent danger; the cars zooming near him but a hair away from colliding with him should he err. Often all it takes is a single mistake by himself or any number of vehicles that whiz by him and the accident report becomes just a little bit longer.
Given the danger of the job, you might ask why they’re willing to do this. The answer is really quite simple, actually: he’s just trying to save lives, and ultimately that’s all that matters to Frenette, despite towers not necessarily having the same respect that paramedics, police officers and fire fighters have in the public eye. His willingness to put himself in speeding line of the fire speaks volumes about his and other rovers’ unheralded good deeds, especially considering some motorists all but fully ignore his truck’s warning lights whenever he sits at the road’s side helping a stranded individual.
Considering the danger, it’s difficult to fathom the courage Frenette and other City Wide Towing operators endure while performing the free service, but what’s assured is that the gratitude he receives from motorists after each tow makes his work worth every moment.
