Over a hundred lifted 4x4's and fancy Jeeps passed and didn't even stop.

This was my morning:



Fortunately it wasn't mine but I did rig up and get him on all fours.




I recognized it as a Tacoma and stopped just too wonder what in the heck it was doing sleeping on it's side, the owner was still around and told me:

"Over a hundred lifted 4x4's and fancy Jeeps passed and didn't even stop."

I asked him if he had a tow truck and he said no he really thought someone with a truck might help but he was losing faith, told him I got a truck and all the recovery gear to do it so we did.

For those wondering I used a lifting sling on the frame just in front of the front leaf and another just in front of the front cab mount used my rope to connect them with a bowline on each end into the slings, then used a shackle to connect my tow strap to my hitch pin in the hitch, all solid connections, slowly took up the slack then just bumped it slightly in 4WD low and she teetered right back over with a KER-CHUNK-UH.

Unfortunately I don't know if it still runs, the battery cracked and leaked all the fluid out and about that time an actual tow truck showed up so I left the owner in their care.

Very surprised not a single piece of glass broke and aside from the front left fender it really didn't look bad at all.

I really wish I could have got it on video, but the #1 RULE of recovery is site safety, and with traffic and people around it was not safe to have someone filming so two pictures is all I got.

Remember folks, rubber side down.

 

I'd say they didn't stop for liability reasons.

It would have been nice had one or several of them stopped to see if everyone was okay or at least called 911.

Glad you got him over safely

 

Good on you for stopping to help. Did he say what happened?

 

He said an animal ran out in front of him and he swerved.

From the looks of the tire marks on the road and dirty he caught the median over corrected came back accross and hit the curb just perfectly to point him back up the road and lay it on its side.

 

I wouldn’t have known how to do that. I’m glad you were able to help.

 

Hmmm... Sad but probably true, maybe my nature to help people will put me in a pickle some day but until then I want to help folks where I can especially with my truck just cause to me it's fun and what's the point of a big truck if you don't help folks?

 

I get it, I really do but there's a lot of people out there these days looking to blame others and sue them over everything, it's a slippery slope. It's sad really.

 

My insurance agent told me once if a deer or any other animal runs out in front of me there better be hair in the grill or I'll have to pay up

 

Yeah I basically got the same info, it's better to hit the animal as most insurance companies will cover that but not swerving to miss and ending up in a ditch.

 

See this is why PreRunners are more dangerous than 4x4 Tacomas

Probably still runs with the battery replaced. Might be burning oil for a while. I don't see curtain airbags. Was the truck a '05-'08 model?

 

I turned my 1st gen prerunner on its starboard side while doing running start doughnuts in the front pasture in college. Called a friend w/ a 4x4 and snatched me back on all fours within ~1hr. Let it sit overnight to let fluids drain properly. Next day she cranked up & ran just fine. No glass breaks but did have to replace all side body panels and some roof work due to damage from roof rack. Drove it another 14yrs.

 

Good on you helping!

The likelihood I'm going to actually do the recovery on pavement is a coin toss. Around here it's mostly people sliding off snowy roads and like you say the liability for someone getting hurt or vehicle damage has me gun-shy. Especially in this case there's a lot of risk to you getting your butt sued but, yeah, I'm going to at least stop.

On back roads or on the trail it's a different story.

 

Yeah that was my concern, oil probably leaked down into the cylinders, hope he clears it and it isn't hydro locked.

I think it was an earlier 2nd gen, had the 05-10 grill and front end and I want to say it had the 05-08 incandescent tail lights but I'm not for sure. I was trying to move as quickly as possible as safely as possible to not be holding up traffic any more than necessary.

 

I've pulled several people out of ditches but I made it clear I wasn't responsible for any damages and handed them the end of the chain and said you are hooking it to your vehicle and if the bumper comes off, that's not my problem.

 

I'll do the same. I have little concern if I roll up to someone aware enough to have recovery points or at least knows enough about their car to have screwed in the tow point they all use now. Extra bonus points if they're already holding their own tow strap (like jumper cables), kind of the universal "Please help and I'm not a moron" IMO.

The problem for me comes in with someone who doesn't know these things because asking them to make a connection to their car has me trusting that they won't screw it up. So I would actually prefer to do the rigging but that just puts the liability right back on me and that's exactly for what professional tow trucks operators carry insurance.

ETA: The times I've helped with gear and muscle in traffic there's been a cop there. Neutral third party and someone to direct traffic changes the situation. In my experience it depends on the situation whether they want a tow truck or are willing to let people just help each other.

 

Yeah and I guess that all makes sense, side note, those screw in recovery points are utter garbage, I've seen more than one snapped off, they're only good for pulling the vehicles weight straight and how often does that happen in real recovery? I think they're actually just for conveniently pulling the car up on a flatbed, I don't think they're meant for recovery at all, you certainly can't side load them in the slightest.

I guess from my point of view, there was a time when footing a $100 tow truck bill ment I couldn't pay rent, or couldn't eat for 2 weeks, or something equally as bad, so I try and save people who might be down and out when and where I can because once upon a time that was me.

 

Agreed on your points and I'd love to live in a world where we could just help each other without needing to wonder if a good deed is gonna bite you later. At least with medical help there's Good Samaritan laws that as long as you act in good faith and don't misrepresent your skills (IOW, taking Red Cross First Aid/CPR and watching Grey's Anatomy does not qualify you to do surgery) you're good to go.

 

You never swerve to avoid an animal, you swerve to avoid the young child who ran in front of you.

 

Among the first lessons taught when I learned to drive was if a small animal ran in front of you, do not slam on your brakes or swerve. Human lives trump animal lives.

The next one was if a large animal is in front of you, speed up. Why? If you brake hard you’ll nose dive and have the animal in your lap. If you speed up you have a better chance of going over it or having it go over you.

 

Nice work!