food for thought for all you guys who think you, your wives or your mothers are safe having AAA.
I have 18 winters of driving under my belt and haven’t been in a ditch since the 1990s, I had to work last night until 11.
So I leave work at 11pm and it is nasty but thats nothing new since I work out in the country, I am going aprox 5mph, 4 ways on when visability goes from horrible to gone, as I creep towards a stop looking out my rolled down driverside window it looks like I am heading towards the left ditch, so I correct a foot towards the right and bam, off the road in the right hand ditch.
So I phone home to tell people where I am, get out of the car and walk a hundred yards to a house and knock on the door.
I call AAA and am told someone will be out within the hour, they call back within a half hour and tell me they have NO SERVICE in my area and Erie County Sheriffs will give me a ride home.
Erie county sheriffs are aprox 4 miles from where I am at and their sub station is .5 miles from my house and there are usually 3-4 vehicles there at any given time.
Fast forward home owner trying to get me out with his tractor, getting tractor stuck in ditch, me pulling out tractor with his work truck backing over his fancy mailbox, trying to pull out car with work truck ect.
At this point the dude is pretty pissed, not talking, pretty apparent I have worn out my welcome and have to go, its now 3am.
AAA tells me they turned the case over to the Sheriffs dept and cannot or will not help me, Erie Co. Sheriffs tell me they cannot help me either and told AAA they were not helping people!
I literally flagged down a county plow and got a ride home.
Now as of this morning AAA still will NOT tow my car, sun is out, crystal clear, they are telling me there is a travel ban (I don’t see one listed for where my car is) but regardless shouldn’t a tow truck be considered an emergency vehicle and exempt??
Things that saved me-
Having a full tank of gas, hat & gloves, cell phone with charge, Erie County DOT
Things that did not help, AAA, Erie Co. Sheriffs, Nike (really need boots!)
I know a tow truck driver for AAA. When it gets like this out, they simply don’t have the resources to rescue everyone. It sucks but that’s just the simple truth.
Sounds like you owe that poor guy a mailbox and some beer. Good luck getting your vehicle at some point. They’ll probably tow you once the weather region wide calms down. I know it blows but what can you do!?
My mother in law buys me AAA every year as a Christmas present, and while pretty self reliant, I’ve used it a time or two when there’s no way I could’ve gotten myself out of trouble. I understand that in situations such as last night’s that they are more than likely stretched beyond their limits, and the limits of the towing contractors they employ. What concerns me even more is that the Sheriff’s department basically washed their hands of you and could’ve left you to die in a stranded car in sub-zero temperatures. If you can’t get help from them, who the fuck are you supposed to call?
I’ve driven through everything including the October storm at it’s peak, never in my 19yrs of driving have I experienced the severe white out situations we had last night.
During my ride home with DOT on a 4 mile stretch we passed 5 more cars/trucks and a DOT plow all in the same right hand ditch I was in.
That really is the question though, if the police can’t help what would you do in that situation??
Perhaps it’s time to get some outdoor survival gear
Dot plows gave up plowing at one point because they had 4 plows go in the ditch, all exp. drivers with 20 years. Tow truck drivers gave up going out because they literally couldn’t see to get there. If I was a tow truck driver, I wouldn’t have sympathy for anyone who got stuck since they warned everyone about this. When they say 3’ of snow, everyone just laughed and said it was nothing they weren’t used to.
the roads weren’t closed when I called them and there was no travel ban at the moment.
What pisses me off is their attitude, they told me I have to co-ordinate getting the car out with Erie county sheriffs now since they washed their hands of the case.
Did I mention the car is half in the road??
I am afraid to go look it probably got slammed by someone
yeah because I was in my pajamas running to Walmart for a pack of smokes with my EBT.
I watch the weather carefully, it was supposed to be overnight last night and into today, I did call into work today since I have no car to drive and am too pussy by NYSPEED standards to take my Z06 out
Sorry, but when you venture out in conditions like this you should do so knowing you are ON YOUR OWN. I wouldn’t expect any tow company to be available to come get me until the storm broke.
I wasn’t directing that at you FYI, just the common attitude I’ve seen around. I understand a lot of people had legitimate reasons for being out, but I do know people who stayed overnight at their place of employment because they didn’t venture into the weather.
I am just curious what logic makes you feel like if you couldnt see 3 feet in front of you that the tow truck driver would be able to have any better conditions to come get you in.
I dont think AAA/tow companies can afford to risk losing one of their trucks by traveling in conditions that are that bad. I know if I owned a tow company, I would have all of my guys parked until atleast visibility was better…risking my employees, my equipment, my time is not a good business move.
here’s how it’s been outside here all day, maybe the storm needs to “break” somemore until AAA stops telling me to get fucked??
Updated - - -
ok heres my issue, I don’t expect AAA or a tow truck driver to “save me” in a blizzard
I do however expect the police to at least attempt to
lastly I do not expect AAA to tell me to get fucked and have the sheriffs tow me when its crystal clear out
I think he means you should have stayed at work. You said yourself there was zero visibility. So you and 100 other people can’t see where you’re driving and beach your cars in the ditch. Then you wonder why a tow truck or the police can’t come save you. Maybe it yas something to do with that ZERO VISIBILITY that you mentioned. If you can’t see where you’re going, neither can the police or tow truck drivers.
Are you guys fucking idiots?
Let me break this situation down, it was not zero visibility at my work.
I left, got about 2 miles away and ran into the situation, should I have put the car in reverse and backed back to work?? Perhaps I should have sat dead in the road or even better attempted to walk back to work.
I wish I had the foresight you guys all have or better yet, hindsight
Yeah, because the tow company only serves your street where the band happens to not be right now.
The police didn’t get to you because they were busy dealing with a bunch of idiots who decided to drive in zero visibility and drive into ditches after leaving perfectly safe and warm buildings where they worked because “they wanted to get home”.
Bottom line, cancel AAA if you want but no reasonable person is taking your bashing them as a real issue in this case.