Posted: 15 January 2010 at 05:37 | IP Logged

Got a call for a winchout last night.  The guy reached down for "chips" and went into the soft shoulder and got pulled off the road and up against a bunch of saplings.

A good Samaritan stopped to help him and was still waiting when I arrived.  He told me that he was going to help me.  I told him that I was all set.

I started working on hooking up chains, and he kept getting in the way and offering to hook them up for me.  I told him again that I was all set.

I used a tree on the opposite side to hold the rearend off the trees while I winched the front out, and then when I went to rehitch the hold line, he went to the other end and started unhitching my chains.  I yelled and told him to stop.  He then tried to explain how much he knew.  I again told him I was all set.

I had to reposition my truck for another pull, and while I was getting resituated, he tried jumping on some saplings to release the truck from them.  I yelled again because I saw the truck roll toward him about 6 inches.  He said that he knew that it wasn't going to roll because of all his years of experience helping out the local tow truck operator and logging.   I told him not to touch it again, because in a match between him and the truck, the truck would win.  He told me that he was going to jump out of the way.

This was my first experience with a non-owner helper.  With owners, I start putting equipment away and tell them that if they have it under control, then I will be leaving.  All of a sudden, I have the entire job to myself and under my control. 

Short of hitting the man, does anyone have any suggestions? 

Posted: 15 January 2010 at 11:54 | IP Logged

I always just take the customer and lead him to the front seat of my truck, help him in and then show him the seat belt and wait for him to lock himself in.

Each time they try and help I just stop and wait until he gets the message and backs off. It's kind of like teaching a dog to walk on a leash. Each time the dog starts pulling, you stop. After a while the dog learns that each time he pulls on the leash, he isn't going anywhere.

Posted: 15 January 2010 at 12:26 | IP Logged

The flare idea usually works the best--we go so far as to say the law requires a any scene to have flares, but obviously the vehicle owner didn't take care of it,  so the good samaritan would be doing the vehicle owner a HUGE favor if he wanted to set some flares 200 ft up (and down) the road...

Not only does it get Mr. Helpful out of our hair, but it gets more flares out. 

If Mr. Helpful is the VID owner, we do like Bill--tell him we can't help him unless he removes himself--please have a seat in the truck.

Posted: 15 January 2010 at 17:33 | IP Logged

Sounds like this wasn't the owner, but the person who stopped to help that got in the way.

I've used the "My insurance will cover me, but not anyone else, so please go stand over there" line.  If that doesn't work, I stop everytime they try to help.

Posted: 16 January 2010 at 05:36 | IP Logged

 At dark o'thirty in the high crime area I was loading a car and out of the dark came a man who wanted to help. My customer off to the side watching me work, and the samaritan telling me he would help. I said no thanks I got it. Then again he said he would help and would get closer to the car or me. Finally after the third or fourth attempt "to help me" I got in his face , with all the hot air I could muster and screamed I don't need your help, get outta here!!!  He left.   My customer said he had my back.  lol.

Say,,, on second thought I should have give him a lit flare and told him to put it where the sun don't shine so his hands would be free to direct traffic.   Yeah I like that idea.

Posted: 16 February 2010 at 03:13 | IP Logged

I try and remove the customer from the job. I know they want to help but I claim that they need to be a ticketed tow operator with the right safety gear employed by the towing company before they can help. Last weekend the guy rostered on was called out to an accident. A truck had rear ended a roadside service ute. The truck pushed the ute into the brokendown 100 series Toyota, spun it out of the way before ramming the Toyota. Three people were taken to hospital. The truckie said he was checking out the condition of his mate in the sleeper cab, he was having problems at the time.

 Seperating the customer from the job is the only way to go. People are sent off the road and upwind from the traffic flow. Must be an local thing-people arn't invited into the cab until we hop in. I don't take my eyes off oncoming traffic much. Even with Police around people do not slow down. Bruce

Good topic. Sending someone up the road for flares would put the duty of care for his safety on YOU wouldn't it?