'Slick' Work on Recovery
By Jim "Buck" Sorrenti
Bill's Towing & Auto Service of St. Clairsville, Ohio, has been providing, road service, auto repairs, towing and recovery services to Belmont County, Ohio and the Wheeling, West Virginia metropolitan area since 1981. Company founder William "Bill" Coulson co-owns the company along with his sons Chad and Ty.
On Nov. 27, 2018, Bill's was called by the Ohio State Patrol for a semi wreck and spill.
"The wreck was on State Route 147 Belmont, Ohio in front of the Pilot truck stop," Ty said.
Ty responded in their emergency response tractor-trailer, a converted beer trailer loaded with spill supplies. Chad was in their 60-ton, five-axle Peterbilt. This truck, called, "A Little Side Action," is a 2018 Peterbilt 389 tandem steer with a 2018 Jerr-Dan 50/60 ton rotator mounted on the business end. Operator Greg Reline was driving a support pickup, operator Jeremy Kartman was in a service truck to help with the removal of the tank and operator Andrew Russell was driving a support pickup with their new vacuum trailer.
The Bethesda Fire Dept and Belmont County Emergency Management Agency were on scene when Bill's recovery team arrived. The team saw a four-door Mercedes sedan had smashed into the passenger side fuel tank of a semi, causing fuel to spill on the road and into a ditch line.
"We first rigged the Mercedes and removed it from the semi," Ty said, "and then pumped the remaining fuel off of the fuel tank. We set up spill supplies to contain the spill, removed the damaged fuel tank from truck and strapped and capped all of the lines."
The crew hooked the semi with frame forks and fork chains with binder to remove it from the scene. The semi was then towed to the company hub in Columbus.
Ty said, "We towed the Mercedes back to our yard. Our new vac trailer was used to suck up approximately 40 gallons of the fuel that had pooled in the ditch line."
"[We] want to say thank you to the Bethesda Fire Department and Belmont County EMA for their help with this mess, Chad added. "We even got to break in the new vac trailer, so it was a successful clean up all around."
Show Yours @ TIWDo you have a recovery to share with TIW readers? Send some pics and info to our Field Editor Jim "Buck" Sorrenti at jimchaos69@yahoo.com; your story may even be selected for print in American Towman magazine!
