The Towing and Storage Safety and Enforcement Act does not make it any easier to stay safe. The towing industry continues to fall between the cracks in almost all instances of labour law and guidelines.
by Dennis Roberts, TransCan Service Ctr. Ltd.
My previous updates have highlighted numerous examples of just how poorly the Ontario Ministry of Transportation has handled the legislation of the towing and storage industry. This issue I will focus on the SAFETY aspect.
As indicated in the title of the legislation, Towing and Storage Safety and Enforcement Act (TSSEA), SAFETY should have been paramount in its content. This, however, is far from the case. Every single one of us has either been hit on the roadside or knows someone that has been. The towing industry in North America accounts for more roadside deaths than both law enforcement and firefighters combined.
May-June 2024
There is definitely a need for more safety on the roadside. I have always been fortunate enough to have a very understanding police agency to work with, one that would give me whatever I needed to complete a recovery or hook up, whether it was a lane, a full closure, or just their presence and lights to slow traffic.
Many are not so lucky. I constantly hear of operators who have been dispatched to calls where the police leave as soon as the tow arrives, or they may have even left before the tow arrives.
"The towing industry in North America accounts for more roadside deaths than both law enforcement and firefighters combined.”
It matters not why this happens. If the police agency is understaffed, busy, or a higher priority call comes in, I get that. But this does not excuse forcing towers to work in an unsafe workplace. I will guarantee you that not a single person involved in the writing of the TSSEA has ever had to dodge vehicles travelling at 100 kph+ while completing their daily work.
The fact that the towing industry has accepted the dangers of the job and worked in the gray area of the labour laws, guidelines, or even the MTO’s protocol for “on highway labour works,” is on the towing industry. However, this does not absolve an Ontario ministry from ignoring that fact and dictating some basic safety rules. I’m sure some of you are groaning about not needing to be burdened with labour laws or OTM Book 7 protocols, but keep in mind, when (not if, but when) you get hit, any investigation into the incident will surely call into question the fact that you did not follow accepted guidelines for highway work. Even a short duration job requires that basic safety protocols are followed.
Yes, I know—the quicker an operator can get loaded, the less exposure there is, and this very real concern affects towers’ decision making all the time. A tower might load, throw one strap on, and get the heck off the road to finish securing the casualty, simply because the situation is so unsafe and so exposed given the location of the vehicle. I know this is not right, and I know that towers hate being put in this position, especially when there is not another industry that works the highways that would accept this as part of the job. In fact, in every industry, workers have the right to refuse work that they feel is unsafe (without penalty) until a Ministry of Labour (MOL) review clears the work as safe.
Can you imagine the traffic chaos if towers were to begin demanding MOL reviews of their workplace? Conditions on the highways are getting worse, not better. Even when there is a police car present with emergency lights activated, most drivers don’t slow down, and very few will move over. It is considerably worse if there is no police presence. This legislation would have been the ideal time to introduce stiffer penalties for failure to Slow Down, Move Over (SDMO), and dramatically increase penalties for any instance where an operator is struck.
In the state of Michigan, if you hit and injure a highway worker, it’s a year in jail. If you hit and kill a highway worker, it is up to 15 years in jail plus fines and six points on your license. I see no reason why similar penalties could not have been incorporated into TSSEA.
That being said, towers would need to protect themselves using basic safety procedures (lights, cones, etc.)—you know—
all the things we avoid in our hurry to get off the road. It is my understanding that in Quebec, when responding to incidents on the Autoroute highways, towers must stay in their tow trucks until a crash truck is on scene.
I also understand that in the Tow Zone Pilot project in Ontario, the possibility of a crash truck responding is much higher now than before the project was initiated. I do know for a fact that there is not a crash truck within 100 km of the region where I work.
"I will guarantee you that not a single person involved in the writing of the TSSEA has ever had to dodge vehicles travelling at 100 kph+ while completing their daily work.”
The towing industry is the one industry that falls between the cracks in almost all instances of labour guidelines/law when it comes to towing (and tenfold when it comes to recovery work). Even while doing the most basic tow, when completing a hook up or installing safety chains, how many of us use any type of safety device to prevent a vehicle from falling on us in the event of a hydraulic failure? How many times have you had to time traffic and dodge in and out to complete a hook up? On a recovery, how many times have you rigged to a vehicle that was unstable that could pin or trap you if it moved? How many times have you put yourself in harm’s way, “because it will only take a second” to throw on a chain or strap? How many times have you exposed yourself to unknown fluids or hazardous materials in an effort to complete rigging and recovery? How many times have you had to step or lay in diesel fuel, engine oil, or antifreeze to rig and then wear those same clothes to the end of the job?
In construction, you must have working at heights training to work on a step ladder, yet operators routinely climb up the greasy wet chassis of a rolled over truck to rig it, and we think nothing of it. These, and a hundred more examples, are daily occurrences in our line of work. This is not proper protocol, but it is accepted as part of the job. Once again, can you imagine the uproar we would create if we insisted on following the same safety guides as other industries?
To be fair, there are references to proper protocols in the “drivers guide” that was leaked from the MTO last fall. This handbook, as well as the handbook for tow operators and storage operators, is supposed to be the guide that we are required to follow to be compliant with the legislation. I have not seen an official version of any of the handbooks, and as of the print date of this issue, we are now four months into the legislation.
As for the government’s insatiable demand to keep the roads open, they look the other way when it comes to labour guidelines, and they would prefer not to open that Pandora’s box.
But look at what they have demanded of the towing industry in this legislation. Yet again the government has burdened us with more legislation, effectively forcing us to raise our rates to comply, but at the same time, they warn us to keep our rates affordable to “those of limited means.” They threaten that if they don’t agree with our rates, they reserve the right to impose their own rates on the industry!
In my opinion, the Towing and Storage Safety and Enforcement Act has not improved the safety of towers in the workplace, and it has failed in the safety aspect of the legislation.
A final note—the government, law enforcement, and the insurance industry should thank their lucky stars that the towing industry accepts the dangers and completes the jobs as we do. If the time comes that the towing industry needs to push back and demand safer working conditions, traffic delays will escalate, and the cost of towing and recovery will skyrocket. 🍁