WINTER suRvIval guide
CAA tow operator
Jerry Merk
road. You hope you trained them well
enough, but then you always worry
about someone coming down the
road without looking,” he says.
The rules of the road are clear:
Drivers must slow to 60 kilometres
per hour on Saskatchewan highways
when passing a working tow truck
with its safety lights flashing. On
double-lane highways, motorists
should also try to move to the far lane
to give operators room to work safely.
The Saskatchewan government is
considering new legislation to allow
tow trucks to be outfitted with lights
that flash amber and red. These signals are instantly recognizable and
are more attention-grabbing than the
amber lights they use now. Still, Merk
insists that better driver education is
even more essential.
If you see something on the side
of the road—a tow truck, pedestrian,
cyclist, another vehicle or something
you can’t quite make out—reduce
your speed and safely move over as
truck drivers isn’t just
far as possible, preferably changing
of life and death
lanes. “If people are only slowing
down when they see a beacon, there’s
still a hazard of somebody being there
without the lights,” Merk says.
Though he takes great pride in
Drivers who have a breakdown
helping people during stressful times
should also take a few precautions:
of breakdowns, he always splits his
Try to get your vehicle as far off the
attention between doing his job and
road as possible and turn on your
looking over his shoulder to watch
four-way flashers. The
for careless drivers.
ditch or fence line are
Ignoring pylons and
Try to get your
the safest places to wait
flashing lights, they
vehicle as far
for a tow. If weather
sometimes whiz past
off the road as
conditions force you to
within a hair’s breadth
possible and turn wait inside your vehicle,
of his truck or the
on your four-way Merk says you should
vehicle he’s towing.
Merk’s three children
flashers. The ditch avoid sitting in the back
or driver’s seat, where
sometimes accompany
or fence line are
you are more likely to
him on calls, including
the safest places
be seriously harmed if
his 24-year old son who
to wait for a tow
another driver smashes
has a particular interinto you.
est in joining the famSlow down. Move over: We can all
ily business. But inattentive drivers
do our part to make the roadside a
make Merk hesitant to let his son
safe place to work.
follow in his footsteps.
“I don’t feel anybody is ever totally
ready to be working on the side of the
To learn more: caask.ca/safety
Making room for tow
the law—it’s a matter
One winter day, tow operator Jerry
Merk was on a road just outside
White City, winching a car from a
ditch onto his deck truck. He heard
a horn blast and looked up to see a
semi-trailer truck switching lanes,
with a red pickup right behind. Merk
got out of the way just in time to see
the pickup hit his truck, roll over and
land right beside the car Merk was
there to tow—with a frightened
family inside.
“Nobody got hurt, but if that guy
had landed on the car, it would have
been a much different outcome. The
family didn’t even know what was
going on—it all happened in the blink
of an eye,” says Merk, who has operated Merk’s Towing & Storage in the
Indian Head area since 2003.
For Merk, who has worked in
towing for more than 30 years, such
accidents happen far too often.
46
WINTER 2016
CAA saskaTchEWaN
mERk: Ray DuNNIsoN/pIvcomm.ca
move over!