By COLLEEN J. MILLER

Managing Editor

“It’s OK, they do it all the time.” We tell ourselves that, every time we get into a cab, on a public bus, the subway, a tow truck or even a roller coaster. “They’re professionals, they always drive like this and how many times do they really get in accidents? What are the odds anything would actually happen when I’m in the vehicle?”

Well, I learned how easy it can be to become a statistic when I was in a bus crash a few months ago.  This was reaffirmed when I hitched a ride in a wrecker this Sunday, as we flew through a red light. It wasn’t on purpose, but if I would have known that the tow truck was going to have worse breaks than my Volvo (which had a corroded break line and no fluid, hence the tow) I would have just taken my chances with my busted vehicle. I would have at least driven the speed limit down bumpy roads so I could allow time to stop at red lights. And because it was a wheel lift and not a flat bed truck, the high speeds and the nonexistent suspension led  to  a busted oil pan and Exxon Valdez –size spill in the driveway when we arrived home.

So this tow company doesn’t seem to care about the vehicles they send out on a service call, and I am, ironically, left depending on them to repair my vehicle. Tow truck drivers do an admirable public service, but the conditions they have to do it in are unacceptable. We don’t send our cops out with guns that misfire and foam nightsticks. Why do insurance companies send out towing companies with vehicles in worse shape than the vehicles that are being towed?