HARRISBURG, Pa.—The International Towing and Recovery Museum in Chattanooga, Tennessee, has a memorial wall in remembrance of the 556 tow truck operators who have died in the line of duty.
Among them is David Duchnik Jr., who grew up riding in his father’s tow truck in Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania.
“When he got his driver’s license, he started driving the tow truck by himself. He said he would never do anything else ever,” his father, David Duchnik Sr., 64, told The Epoch Times.
Father and son often worked together, and that is what they were doing early in the morning of Aug. 4, 2016, the day after Duchnik Jr.’s 29th birthday.
While police stopped traffic, the tow truck operators worked in the fast lane of Interstate 81 near Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania, rolling over a vehicle. But an over-tired truck driver didn’t notice the roadblock in time and ran into the vehicle the Duchniks were rolling over.
“A police officer yelled, ‘watch out,’ but it was too late,” Duchnik Sr. said. He was standing just 5 feet away from his son as the truck sped into them.
The younger Duchnik flew underneath the tow truck, but the pickup truck they had been rolling over was shoved by the passing truck and landed on top of him.
“I hurried up and hooked the cable up and lifted the truck off. I saw in his eyes that he was dead,” Duchnik Sr. said.
Almost seven years later, it feels like yesterday to his parents, David and Michele Duchnik.
Legislating Safety
Tow trucks operators, including the Duchniks, gathered at the Pennsylvania Capitol in Harrisburg on May 22 in advance of the high-traffic Memorial Day weekend, to remind the public about several laws recently passed to protect those on the side of the road. An enormous American flag was hoisted up in front of the Capitol building’s fountain by two large tow trucks.
The event was sponsored by state Sen. Doug Mastriano, a Republican, who said the best legislation comes from ideas brought by constituents. In this case, recently enacted legislation allows tow truck operators to place blue lights on their trucks.
Previously, only yellow or orange lights were allowed.
“We found out that the Texas Department of Transportation and University of Michigan had evidence that drivers do indeed tend to ignore the sight of yellow or orange lights,” Mastriano said, speaking in front of the Capitol building. “But when they see the blue light, it elicits a different response, as you can imagine. They think it’s law enforcement. And so, distracted drivers are less distracted when they see the blue lights.”
State Sen. Dave Argall was instrumental in passing the Move Over Law, which took effect in 2021.
“It’s one thing to pass the law and another thing to educate the public and to get them to follow the law,” Argall said. The Move Over Law brings steeper penalties for failure to move over or slow down when approaching an emergency response area.
Just nine states include all road users in their Move Over Law: Pennsylvania, Maryland, Arizona, Connecticut, Illinois, Iowa, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Tennessee. Similar laws are being considered in Colorado, Georgia, Minnesota, New York, North Dakota, and Virginia.
Soon, Mastriano said, he will introduce legislation to bolster Pennsylvania’s Move Over Law by adding signage to highways reminding drivers to slow down and move over. The signs will be personalized with a photo of someone who died.
Catastrophic Injury
On the dark evening of Dec. 27, 2018, tow truck operator Brian Shockey of Waynesboro, Pennsylvania, had just finished loading a car on Interstate 81 and was getting into his truck when a car veered out of control and hit him.
He doesn’t remember much after that—his tow customer dragging his body out of the road; the helicopter ride to the hospital; the doctors putting pins in his broken legs—all a blur until he recalls his family in his hospital room.
“I was scared. I didn’t know if I would walk again. I couldn’t feel my legs,” Shockey told The Epoch Times.
He woke up in a neck brace and doctors told him he broke both legs, tore the ACL in his knee, damaged his ulnar nerve (the funny bone), tore triceps, broke his ribs, broke his orbital eye socket, and had a severe concussion.
Miraculously four years later, he is walking, but it is painful and, he says, more surgeries are in his future.
Shockey, now 42, is still off work. He wishes drivers would be mindful that a reckless action can affect someone’s life and their family.
‘Needless Death’
Bob Bemis, a retired sergeant for the Pennsylvania State Police, was also injured in a roadside accident.Bemis stopped to help someone on the side of the road who had a vehicle fire. Another driver lost control of their vehicle, struck him, and sent him to the hospital for 65 days. He eventually returned to a limited work schedule and realized he would have to retire due to the lasting effects of his injuries.
He has a scar on his head from a crash injury that compromised his vision. He wishes he had worn a helmet and says most folks with head injuries feel the same about helmets.
Now he advocates for first responders around the country, including police, to wear helmets when working on the side of the road.
Cathy Brumgard, general manager of The International Towing and Recovery Museum, spoke about the tragic deaths of tow truck operators.
“Every time we hear of a driver killed, it’s just a needless death,” Brumgard told The Epoch Times.
“These guys, for the most part, are blue collar workers, you know, just working to get a paycheck, and they leave behind young families. ... You’ve got these families who don’t have their breadwinner anymore or their father—their daddy. It’s just really a shame that there is not more attention paid to it.”
