June 1, 2, 3, 2012 @ Fort William Henry Resort

  click here to visit their website  

This year’s Empire State Towing & Recovery Tow Show is being held at the Fort William Henry Resort in Lake George, NY June 1-3.

ESTRA is still putting the finishing touches on this year’s exciting roster of vendors, exhibitors and events. Spots are quickly filling up for the popular annual gathering.

Each year the team at ESTRA really puts on a special event, with a fun and family-friendly atmosphere for attendees. Their website contains an extensive gallery from past years.

Among the raffle prizes on tap this year are tickets to NASCAR events in the fall, sponsored by Jerr dan & Paul Ruth Wrecker Sales in Colonie NY.

Also available will be the OSHA-required forklift certification course and a separate course on air brakes.  This is certified to comply with DOT REG for service techs and mechanics working air brakes.

There will also be an All Lifts Rigging & Safety Class at the Lake George event, with details to be posted soon.

The first night Meet & Greet Dinner will be held Friday evening at The White Lion, directly in front of The Fort William Henry Resort.

For information on the event, please contact ESTRA at 888-853-7872.

CORPUS CHRISTI  I  Spring breakers in Corpus Christi, Texas will have no excuse for drinking and driving this year.  A local towing firm has launched a program to get kids and their cars home safely at no charge.

In fact, they’re calling it “No Excuses” at Apollo Towing.  The program continues through to this Friday night.

This is the first year the shop has tried the initiative, but hopes it will catch on. The program is also being sponsored by L&F Distributors.  

Call 361-853-0003 for a safe ride home.

__________________________________________

Want to share your own story?
Contact Us
or call 888-603-2599.

The Professional Wrecker Operators of Florida

April 11 – 14, 2013 @ The Orlando Hilton

  click here to visit their website  

.

 on hand this year….

Tow Truck Beauty Contest

Bring your show truck and compete for trophies and prizes. Be part of the largest display of trucks from around the country. Expanded display area fits even more trucks. Free T-Shirt and Tow Times Cap to every entrant.

…

6th Annual USAC/MD 
Charity Golf Classic

Swing into action at the beautiful Celebration Golf Course and enjoy 18 holes Thursday April 11, 2013. Benefiting the International Towing and Recovery Museum’s Survivor fund. Call 770-967-8405 for more information. Get a Hole-In-One and win a Miller Industries Tow Truck.

…

Tow Truck Raffle

Buy a $10 raffle ticket, or buy two or three, for a chance to drive home the PWOF 2013 Raffle Truck (pictured above) – a fully loaded Hino 258 chassis with air brakes, air ride suspension and aluminum wheels on a Miller Industries Century 12-Series LCG steel carrier with independent wheel-lift, removable rails, diamond plate bed and LED light bar and lighting.

…

Fun for All Ages

This year, kids will enjoy building NASCAR race cars and compete in a remote control driving contest. Make sure your “little towers” don’t miss their chance to take home their own 
checkered flag winner.

…

Driver Training

Two-day light- and medium-duty driver training class. Classroom & hands on. Limited seating so reserve your space early by completing the form below and faxing it with payment information to 407-296-6335.

  click here to visit their website  

   

NEW HAMPSHIRE TOWING ASSOCIATION

     MAY 18th & 19th @ Hampton Beach State Park

           “The first and best in New England.”

                click here for their website  

              events calendar  

“We are back at the beach,” proclaims the New Hampshire Towing Association, gearing up for this year’s Tow & Trade Show.  

While many industry conventions on the national level might draw a larger crowd, you’d be hard pressed to find one with a more scenic surrounding for their annual gathering.

The New Hampshire Tow & Trade Show will be held again this year at the Hampton Beach State Park in Hampton Beach.  

This 50-acre stretch of Atlantic Ocean coastline is among the most prestine in the nation – ranked one of only four “superstar” U.S. beaches in 2011 with perfect water quality testing for three straight years.

The association is again planning the event as a family affair, with activity for all ages. On the line-up this year is a rodeo, a beauty contest, professional demonstrations and a growing number of vendors.

The largest tow truck in New England will be on hand, plus a $15,000 raffle.

Many attendees turn the event into a larger vacation, enjoying the area while in town for the gathering.

Hampton Beach is a cozy village community in Hampton, New Hampshire.  The area boasts a wide variety of shopping and dining options, with several seafood restaurants offering the freshest favorites.  

Park activities include fishing, camping and of course, swimming at the beach.

Admission to the event is free.  

For more information, contact the association at 603-863-4206.

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – Last week a group of tow truck drivers banded together in Indiana to honor two medics killed days earlier while headed to an accident scene. The drivers of over 20 trucks participated in a procession circling I-465, near the site of the loss.

Tim McCormick was killed on Feb. 17 when a black Honda traveling through an intersection struck the ambulance with such force as to overturn it, where it slid in to another vehicle. A second medic, Cody Medley, died from his injuries about 24 hours later.

Police later identified the driver as 21-year-old Indiana resident Jade Hammer.  The incident report indicated that some officers detected the odor of alcohol on her breath when questioning her about the accident. 

Hammer was taken to Wishard Memorial Hospital for superficial injuries, where a blood-alcohol test was rendered.  Those results have not yet been made public, though Hammer did indicate to police that she’d had a small amount of alcohol that night.

Prosecutors have not yet announced any charges.

In the towing community, many area professionals could immediately relate to the tragedy.  Rarely does a week pass that doesn’t include a story of a serious injury or fatality of a colleague somewhere in the nation.

This month alone has seen multiple such incidents, including the loss of Ron Carver from Platinum Tow and Transport in Malibu California, killed during a hit-and-run while assisting a stranded motorist.  

The driver, a 44-year-old local woman named Jill Rose, was later arrested.  In addition to the felony charge of leaving the scene, she will also face one misdemeanor count of vehicular manslaughter.

This ongoing senseless loss is partly what lead driver Greg Harper to organize ‘The Loop for Life’, a caravan of over 20 local trucks honoring those lost with a single lap around greater Indianapolis. 

“We work with police, fire and ambulance every day all around the United States,” Harper told WISH-News. “You know, they would protect us. And, if it was us, they would do the same thing.”
__________________________________________

Want to share your own story?
Contact Us
or call 888-603-2599.

LOS ANGELES – A group of towing professionals in New York are feeling a bit betrayed after uprooting their lives for a reality show, only to wind up not getting paid thus far for their efforts. 

Craig Sutton and his team are out of Nyack, New York, north of Yonkers. When asked by a Los Angeles-based production company to appear as part of National Georgraphic Channel’s ‘Hell Thru Highway‘ series, some of the team members were a bit hesitant, according to Sutton.

Ultimately he convinced them to sign, and after relocating to California they taped an entire season of episodes.  Sutton tells KMAX-News they haven’t received the $1,000-per-episode payment promised, and aren’t getting any straight answers as to why.

“I kind of feel like I got my guys into this,” Sutton said. “They didn’t really want to do it. They didn’t like signing the contract, and then I got them to sign them.  And they didn’t really care about being followed with cameras all the time.” 

Sutton’s team specializes in rural, difficult terrains with often hazardous conditions.

A call to the production company for comment had not been returned by publication.
__________________________________________

Want to share your own story?
Contact Us
or call 888-603-2599.