Murray Wood: Of Easter bunny bells and Juicy Fruit gum
For Murray Wood, Easter brings to mind grandma's practical advice about repurposing, and some of life's little lessons.
Overnight rain led to icy road conditions on Friday morning on some Saskatchewan highways leaving a handful of vehicles in the ditch.
Rosetown Towing pulled four semis out of the ditch along highway 7 before noon.
“With temperatures hovering around zero that’s when the frost comes out of the highway,” said Jamie Kemp, Owner of Rosetown Towing. “So the phone was ringing off the hook last (Thursday) night.”
Then, as the day progressed, fog rolled in reducing visibility and forcing the towing company to take a break.
“The visibility was very poor and we were having concerns about safety with the workers,” he said. “People just don’t slow down and with the fog conditions they weren’t seeing us until the last second.”
Kemp estimated that before the end of the day they would pull out another six to eight vehicles.
He said that drivers were going too fast for the road conditions and that’s what led to so many calls for help.
“Seems like everyone’s in a panic to get somewhere,” said Kemp.
He also asked drivers to slow down on the highways if they see crews working on the side of the road.
“It’s not worth taking the risk and taking the chance of them going in the ditch themselves or hitting somebody,” said Kemp.
While the towing company does have their own traffic control they also enlisted the help from other organizations.
“We did phone in the RCMP as well to come out and give us a hand with some red and blue lights,” Kemp said. “People respect that (the police lights) a lot more than tow truck lights.”
Kemp said he did expect that operations would resume later in the afternoon, with a few people having to wait to get their vehicle pulled out of the ditch.
Read more:
