Drivers heading down the freeway were shocked by a massive convoy of tow trucks ahead of them in the distance. They didn’t notice what was amiss with the group, which occupied much of the road, until they got a little closer, and that’s when they couldn’t believe what the group was hiding in plain sight as it passed through Alabama.
While there’s nothing unusual about seeing a tow truck on the street or off to the side of the road, there was something very different about this long line of trucks that caught passersby completely off guard. As some started taking photos of the unusual sight, they couldn’t believe what they were actually doing there.
Tow truck drivers are typically the last people anyone wants to see on their commute since they are usually there to pick up an expensive problem. However, on Saturday, this long line of unusual traffic wasn’t there for a driver who broke down or someone losing control of their car — the issue was far bigger than what many people realize until they saw why they were there.
John “Bubba” Hubbard use to drive a tow truck, and while many may not be happy to see him on their bad day, someone else didn’t see him at all as he was helping a stranded individual roadside and was stuck and killed by a distracted driver, ABC reported.
Hubbard isn’t the first tow truck driver to be killed on the job this way, and unfortunately, he probably won’t be the last since so many people don’t pay attention to others who are helping people on the road. While we know this tragedy strikes police too often, the risk to tow truck drivers is the same, and their lives matter too, as an impressive procession of tow truckers proved, who showed up with lights and sirens to escort Hubbard’s casket from the funeral home to the grave.
“Not many people understand how it can be such a large family of tow truck drivers but it’s, it’s a brotherhood,” Wesley Passmore said, who was Hubbard’s boss at Classic Towing and Recovery.
Regardless of what people think, tow truckers don’t just want your money for hauling your ride away and ruining your day. “My life is worth way more than $25,” Mike Atchley, who drives a tow truck and was part of Hubbard’s convoy, told ABC 33/40. “Because that’s a human being. A human life that has a family.”
They are there to do a job that has to be done, and it shouldn’t be at the risk of their lives, by what’s actually a preventable death if people just pay attention. Whether it’s a stranded person, police officer, or tow truck driver on the side of the road, people need to switch lanes if they can and slow down no matter what to avoid a tragedy.
