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For Immediate Release

Tow Truck Rodeo Marks the Freeway Service Patrol's 10 Years in the Bay Area

Dignitaries, grateful motorists and tow truck drivers celebrate motorist aid program's decade of service

CONTACT:

Wes Wells, MTC SAFE
510.817.5726

Réka Goode, MTC SAFE
510.464.7706

OAKLAND, Calif., August 22, 2002...Rodney Pozzi, tow truck driver for Yarbrough Bros. Towing of Santa Rosa, can justifiably call himself the "Best in Tow." The Bay Area Freeway Service Patrol (FSP) driver won first place in the tow truck rodeo staged by the FSP in Alameda on Saturday, Aug. 17, to celebrate the motorist assistance program’s 10th anniversary.

Pozzi drove his shiny white FSP tow truck, pulling a hitched vehicle, through a predetermined course that tested his accuracy and speed in maneuvering around and next to a maze of cones. Starting from zero — indicating no mistakes — he racked up only four points in scoring that added a point for any cone touched or knocked over and two points for every change in direction required to correct the truck’s or the towed vehicle’s position.

Seven other drivers competed in the first-ever rodeo staged by the roving tow truck service that roams the Bay Area’s most congested freeways during the busiest times of the day, helping motorists in trouble and keeping traffic moving. The drivers — representing the 17 private tow companies that currently contract with the FSP — showed off their towing skills at the former Alameda Naval Air Station in front of some 200 fellow tow truck drivers, their families and friends, dignitaries and other FSP program participants. Coming in second in the rodeo was Chino Alcantar of Courtesy Road Patrol of San Jose, and third was Mike Brown, Chevron Tow Service, Fremont.

The rodeo was preceded by a brief ceremony kicked off by Sharon J. Brown, chair of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) Service Authority for Freeways and Expressways (SAFE). MTC SAFE operates and administers the FSP program in partnership with Caltrans and the California Highway Patrol (CHP).

Albert Yee, director of Operations for Caltrans District 4, and Kevin Green, assistant chief of the Golden Gate Division of the CHP, also spoke at the anniversary event.

The speakers’ roster was rounded out by Rick Mendell, an FSP driver who serves as general manager of Redhill Towing in San Rafael and who has been with the FSP program since 1992, and two of the many motorists who have been helped by the FSP: Seema Sharma and Melonye Phoenix, both of Oakland. Sharma and Phoenix were enthusiastic in their praise for the FSP program and for the FSP drivers who had stopped to help them: in Sharma’s case, providing her with a free gallon of fuel after she had run out of gas on Interstate 580, and, in Phoenix’s case, quickly and expertly fixing her flat tire, allowing her to get to work on time.

In their daily jobs, FSP drivers stop an average of more than 9,000 times a month to clear accidents, assist stranded motorists, remove dangerous road debris, tag abandoned vehicles and otherwise help to make the region’s freeways safer and less congested. Since 1992, they have made a total of more than 100,000 such assists. In 10 years, the FSP has grown from a single, three-truck "beat" in the Interstate 680/Highway 24 interchange area to a network that today includes 33 beats, 74 trucks and some 450 miles of coverage all around the region.

FSP drivers provide basic services free of charge such as changing a tire, jump-starting a battery, taping hoses or providing a gallon of fuel. If they can’t get stalled vehicles running within a few minutes, they tow them to the nearest CHP-identified location off the freeway at no charge to the vehicle’s owner.

The FSP has consistently received high marks from travelers who have been assisted — an average of 93 percent deem the service "excellent," the highest rating on the survey forms motorists fill out.

The FSP program is paid for by a variety of federal, state and local funds, including part of a $1-per-vehicle annual registration fee assessed to Bay Area motorists.

MTC is the transportation planning, coordinating and financing agency for the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area.

Note to editors: To arrange a ride-along with the Freeway Service Patrol during regular patrol hours, please contact Jaime Maldonado at 510.817.5707 or by e-mail at <jmaldonado@mtc.ca.gov>. For a map of FSP service areas, go to <www.mtc.ca.gov/services/fsp/fspmap.htm>.

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