The Bittersweet Highway 78 Rescue Operation While rolling around town helping tow out a few stranded drivers, I ended up heading out to the Loganville QT where I ran into a Wayne Wright, a dude I had seen out and about helping tow out people as well. He told me about the mess on 78EB near Hugh Howell, so we decided to head out there and see if we could help out. Got a few vehicles towed up the hill and down to the gas stations where about 50 cars were camped out for the night. We discovered that the real mess was further down 78 about a mile from the E. Park place exit, on 78 EB, just underneath the bridge to the stone mountain park exit ramp that merges into this section...where there was a sheet of ice that had about 20 cars tangled up. This was the head of the problem that had about 50,000 people stranded on highway 78, and had been for hours. We decided to do something about it. Using my emergency lights, we drove about 3 miles east going the wrong way down the west bound lane of traffic on 78, just to get to the head of the pile. Another samaritan, Keith Boyd, saw our intentions from across the highway and decided to join the effort. We crossed a few medians and made our way to the tangled mess around midnight. I started by towing out an Escalade that was stuck sideways blocking 2 1/2 lanes of traffic. From there, the 3 of us alone started pulling out each car that was stuck, one by one, and towed them to a secure spot to continue on. First responding Dekalb and Gwinnett police were very welcoming and offered as much assistance as they could, but we knew it was up to us as no tow truck was going to provide any help. For the next 4 1/2 hours, we towed a total of around 45 vehicles to safety, had traffic stopped and cleared to around 50 yards behind the bridge, so DOT could treat the ice patch. We even had a lane of traffic moving along a path we deemed navigable, and in fact had moved around 200 vehicles by around 4:30am, not including the ones we had towed. We had all fallen about 10 times, I was covered with bruises, and possibly a low grade concussion from knocking my head on the asphalt...and I was loving every minute of it. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to help out so many people in distress, its part of why I work in EMS...because I truly enjoy helping those that are in the most dire of need. Whether it be on the ambulance, or giving a distressed driver a tow to safety...this is what I enjoy doing. Everyone we got a chance to help today was humble and grateful, and thanking us and God for sending us to them. And we three were more than happy to help, and thankful that God had given us the capabilities to do what we were doing. Unfortunately, there is a bitter side to this story. It was around 5am that a few more Dekalb PD officers decided to show up and take over our operation, telling us that our services were no longer needed, that they had the show, told us to leave, and proceeded to start pushing vehicles down the very same lanes of ice covered road that we had worked for nearly 5 hours to clear. We told them that we had a safe lane picked out, that any other path was detrimental and another pileup was going to happen... Their response: Once they get to the bridge, theyre in Gwinnett county, and its no longer our problem. Gwinnett can handle it from there. If people get stuck, we will call tow trucks to get them out. Because apparently a 2wd tow truck isnt going to get stuck just like all the other 2wd vehicles that were stuck...retards. Within 10 minutes, they had destroyed the progress we had made that took more than 4 1/2 hours to complete. We were so bewildered, frustrated, and just flat out insulted by their aggressive incompetence that we just decided to leave. I just find it so disturbing that people can be so ignorant to things that are working. It was obvious that the 3 of us knew what we were doing, and it was clear that we had a plan...and it was working well. Why, for the love of God, would you just throw all of that progress away? Just to make it another countys problem? What happened to working together, using mutual aid for the good of the people as a whole? I just hope that one day departments will willingly work together instead of toss problems around to each other for the sake of avoiding a massive problem. As of 3pm Wednesday, traffic was still stuck in the same spot that we had worked so hard to clear. The three of us were out there out of the goodness of our hearts, not asking for a dime, using our own equipment, not even caring if we were going to be getting cited or arrested for unauthorized operations on public roads...all we wanted to do was help people get home to their families. It would have just been nice to see the departments working together in realization of this, instead of just throwing all of our hard work in the trash. Despite the disappointing outcome of our efforts being thwarted by Dekalb PD, I am still so thankful for meeting Wayne and Keith, who are both truly wonderful and God fearing individuals, willing to help out a stranger in need without question. I am blessed to have been able to make a positive impact on the people we were able to help, and would not trade the experience for anything. God is truly good.
Posted on: Thu, 30 Jan 2014 06:30:26 +0000
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