Towman: Bob Graham has comforted accident victims while waiting for ambulances to arrive.
JOHN VAN KLAVEREN
BOB Graham is an old-school towman.
The semi-retired Lovely Banks towing operator still proudly displays the number plate ‘towman’ on his car.
But his career has not left him unscathed.
“I started when I was 16 and us towmen were usually first on the scene of car crashes.
“There were many times when I had to comfort injured people stuck in cars. Often we spent hours at a scene rendering assistance, especially at truck accidents.
“That was before seat belts, so we saw a lot of horrific injuries. It runs pretty deep; we were often thrown in the deep end.
“Even when the ambulance arrived, they only had one officer in those days, so tow truck drivers were often helping.
“I know of one towman who drove an ambulance to the hospital while the ambulance officer was in the rear with the patient.”
Bob acknowledged it was a different era, with State Emergency Service and CFA personnel now trained to deal with road trauma.
But it was an accident of his own that brought home to Bob just what effect those years of attending collisions had on him.
“I had a motorcycle accident six years ago. Took me four years to get over it,” Bob confided.
“I needed a lot of help, including psychological counselling. It all came back to bite me then.
“It unlocked a lot of the emotions I had bottled up all those years.
“This kind of stuff is not spoken about in the towing fraternity. I know there are others heading the same way.”
Bob said some turned to alcohol or suddenly became prone to violence because they failed to understand what was happening.
“A lot of them couldn’t handle it and moved on,” Bob said.
“The story of tow truck drivers and what they did to help hasn’t really been heard.
“We don’t expect sympathy, just a bit of recognition for what the towies did back then.
“We were accused of being vultures but we were just doing a job.
“All the towies in town knew each other. There was competition but when the crunch came everyone chipped in.
“You toughened up because no one ever asked how you were or suggested to take time out.
“It’s the same stress that police and soldiers like Vietnam vets experience.
“I’m pleased to see someone talking about this subject.”
