Olympia, WA — A brand new law in Washington state is meant to provide tow truck operators an added layer of safety at freeway crash scenes.
Signed into law April 6 by Gov. Jay Inslee (D), the Arthur Anderson and Raymond Mitchell Tow Operators Safety Act (S.B. 5023) permits tow truck operators to make use of rear-facing blue-light flashers once they attain the scene of roadway incidents. That’s along with the pink flashers they’re allowed to make use of when en path to a scene.
The bill is known as for a pair tow truck drivers who have been killed on the shoulder of Interstate 5 close to Longview whereas making an attempt to take away automobiles in two separate 2021 incidents, in line with a press launch from the workplace of Sen. Jeff Wilson (R-Longview), who sponsored the laws. Two stranded drivers additionally died.
The use of each learn and blue flashers will trigger drivers to take discover of tow vehicles and their operators, Wilson stated, and in flip “prevent some of the needless deaths that are a regular occurrence on Washington highways.”
According to NIOSH, citing 2011-2016 information from the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, the motorcar towing business’s fatality fee (43 deaths per 100,000 full-time staff) was greater than 15 instances greater than the nationwide common for all U.S. personal industries mixed (2.8 per 100,000). The main explanation for loss of life was motorcar crashes, which continuously concerned staff being struck by passing automobiles.
Before being signed into law on April 6, the bill obtained unanimous approval in each the House (96-0) and Senate (49-0). The law is about to enter impact July 23.
“I knew Arthur Anderson, and [his death] hit close to home,” Wilson stated within the launch. “Tow truck operators are heroes to every one of us who has had a car die on the highway. They face danger every time they show up for work.”
