Tow truck drivers are being struck and killed on the side of the roads and highways like it’s going out of style yet it isn’t being publicized as much as it should for people to see. In Ontario, Tow Trucks are NOT considered emergency vehicles but we are apart of the Slow Down Move Over law. Unfortunately majority of police officers on Ontario don’t enforce the SDMO law as much as they should resulting in a lot of seriously injured or killed tow truck drivers. The major cause of this is not only distraction but the amber and white lights. We have the same lighting colour as your local landscaper, snow removal company (excluding city plows that have amber blue combination) maintenance company, construction company, etc. and 99% of the time they drive around all day long with those lights on resulting in people becoming so used to seeing it that it doesn’t phase them. Yes tow trucks run with lights activated sometimes as well because they forget to shut them off, but there can be something done to prevent that from happening like wiring the Red, Blue or Combination lights up to your PTO switch so they only come on when the PTO is activated to perform duties on the side of the road and not while driving since it needs to be shut off, that way people don’t get the misconception and become immune to seeing that as well as not having the risk of impersonation.

This law has been passed in other provinces and has made a huge impact on the public reacting better to those lights with less operators being hurt or killed. Most states even allow red and blue only without other colours and that has made immense progress on workplace safety. We need change and we need it bad. Ontario conducted studies stating that red and blue lights are more visible in the dark, low visibility conditions such as snow, fog and heavy rain as well as longer visual distances.

Let’s make this change happen because if we don’t, more and more operators will be killed in the line of duty, and we all have families to go home to as well. I have been struck 3 times in my career and 2 of those times was because they claimed they didn’t even notice I was there because they were so used to seeing amber and white lights. I’m not saying to allow front and rear to be those colours, just the back to allow a bit more contrast and make people more aware of us being on the side of the road close to a lane or even in lanes of traffic if a vehicle broke down in a live lane. BUT if the company wires the lights in incorrectly or the driver drives with the lights activated without a valid reason, then the driver and or company may be charged accordingly. These lights are not for operators to abuse and mislead the public while in motion.