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Highway's rescue rangers

If you've got car trouble on Interstates 275, 4 or 75 in Pinellas or Hillsborough counties, never fear. A band of seven Road Rangers stands ready to help.

By MARLON A. WALKER
Published March 16, 2006

Art Davison opens the plastic container on the back of his tow truck around 6:10 a.m. Thursday. He wants to be sure it's full of fuel for the 12-hour shift ahead.

He knows somebody will run out of gas today, and it can't be him. His job is to get others back on the road.

As a Road Ranger, Davison patrols the highway in search of wrecks, flat tires, road debris and motorists in distress. Every day, seven tow trucks patrol Interstates 275, 4 and 75 in Pinellas and Hillsborough counties. The state Department of Transportation oversees the effort, hiring Davison's employer, Anchor Towing in Clearwater, to do some of the work.

The job Davison has come to love has been harder since March 5, when fellow Road Ranger Don Bradshaw was hit and killed by a car while securing an accident scene on I-275. It's something Davison tries to put out of his mind while he's in the truck.

"Sometimes it's hard," he says. "That's what the radio's for."

He grabs a cup of coffee and hits the road.

6:58 a.m.: A car with a flat tire greets him minutes after he gets on I-275. He changes it, then begins the first of several trips along his daily route.

Davison's day sounds more like a recipe than a job. Start at Himes Avenue on I-275 in Tampa. Go north to I-4. Go east to Exit 10, County Road 579 toward Mango and Thonotosassa. Get off and turn around, heading back on I-4. When you get to I-275, go north. Get off at Martin Luther King Jr. exit and head south on I-275 back to the Himes Avenue exit. Mix in fixing flat tires, towing broken down vehicles, recovering road debris and whatever else is needed. Add bathroom breaks for more flavor. Repeat daily.

Drivers earn around $30,000 annually when they start as a Road Ranger. But what they don't make in money, they get in job satisfaction, says Davison, 43.

"I like being outdoors," he says. "This is about the best of the outdoors you're going to get."

8:14 a.m.: Davison comes across an F-150 pickup with a flat tire. When a spare is available, he helps change the tire. This owner doesn't have a spare. The man contacts his father, who says he will bring one shortly. Davison stays at the scene for 15 minutes before heading off.

9:39 a.m.: A Chevy truck and a Lincoln LS collide on I-275 while both are trying to merge into the same lane. Both cars are scratched in the collision. Davison checks to make sure everyone is okay and moves on.

During downtime, Davison's thoughts often turn to his kids - ages 8, 7 and 3 - who moved to Live Oak last May with their mother. It's been six months since he has seen them.

11:17 a.m. : Miguel Lopez's 1997 Ford Aspire keeps breaking down on I-275. When people insist on driving cars that aren't road-worthy, Davison says, they endanger themselves and others. He calls for backup, pulls over and hoists Lopez's car onto the back of his white tow truck. Lopez gets into the car with the other driver, then bolts, sprinting to the front of Davison's truck.

"No money, no money," Lopez says in broken English.

"You don't pay anything. It doesn't cost any money," Davison says to the man, trying to get Lopez back to the emergency vehicle he was in.

"No money, no money," Lopez says again.

"It's free!" Davison shouts, worried for the man's safety.

This time, Lopez gets it. He goes back to the waiting emergency vehicle. Davison and the other driver drop Lopez off at a Kash 'N Karry.

Heading south on I-275, Davison reaches the area where Bradshaw, who was a supervisor for the Road Rangers, died. He said there hasn't been a day since that he hasn't thought about his fallen colleague.

"You learn to deal with it," he says. "It's unfortunate what happened. But that's why he came out of retirement - to do this job."

Len Levin, who owns Arrow Towing and had the Road Ranger contract for several years before Anchor won it in November, says Bradshaw was a "loose cannon," didn't follow the rules of the road and shouldn't have been out there the day he died. Levin says he was told Bradshaw hopped the concrete block separating I-275's northbound and southbound lanes to secure an accident scene. It's something you're not supposed to do.

"The procedure is to park 75 to 100 feet behind a vehicle to act as a collision shield. He had no collision shield," Levin says.

Terry Hensley, FDOT's traffic incident manager, defends Bradshaw, saying he jumped the separator only because traffic was heavy and it would have taken him too long to get to the other side.

"What question would you be asking me if there was a guy who had been run over seven times in the road?" Hensley asks.

Davison is wearing a dark blue hat with "FDOT" printed in orange. Bradshaw bought them for the drivers, he says, when the wrong hats came with their uniform shirts in the fall.

"He was an excellent driver," Davison says. "He was really safety oriented."

2:35 p.m.: A call comes over the radio seeking a wrecker to move a car from the road after an accident. Davison responds. On I-275 S, north of the Howard and Armenia streets exit, a Dodge Neon has rear-ended a Ford Expedition. The Florida Highway Patrol is on the scene. Davison pulls up, hoists the Neon, and takes it to a Texaco gas station off the exit.

"You're leaking hydraulic fluid - bad," he is told by Adam Karsin, another Road Ranger who responded to the wreck. He already has noticed a flat tire on the back of his truck. It is time to head back for repairs.

After returning to the road, Davison helps with a few accidents during the afternoon rush hour in Tampa, then begins his trek back to Clearwater at 6 p.m.

He drops the tow truck off, then heads home. The rest of his night consists of dinner and playing video games until he falls asleep.

Today, he'll do it all again.

RESCUE RANGERS 

People can get in touch with Road Rangers in several ways:

* They can dial 511.

* They can dial *FHP.

Or they can just wait. Road Rangers travel the roads frequently.

[Last modified March 16, 2006, 22:55:25]