Towing companies seeing more business due to weather

Courtney Orton reporting Snow and ice can mean big trouble for drivers. At the same time, it means big business for tow truck drivers.

Eyewitness News spoke to a tow truck driver who told us on a normal day his company gets called out about 40 times. With this week's weather, that number has jumped to 50 to 65 calls per day.

"Monday through today has just been enormous amount of tows because of the slide-offs, car accidents, fender benders," said Brad Ingersoll, of Elite Towing Services.

The accidents Ingersoll gets called out to vary in size and seriousness, but he thinks getting a storm every other day is a big factor. "You get the break, and then you get the cold, and then you get a little trace of snow, and that's a real skating rink. It's almost worse, I think, than an accumulation of snow," he said.

Ingersoll says people's tires don't look good. "You look at some of them tires on these vehicles, there's no tread. It just amazes me how many people run around with no tread," he said.

"The cars are really built and designed to run on good quality tires. When you take the tire out of the equation, you've got an accident waiting to happen," explained Rick Long, of Goodyear Tire.

Long says tires with good tread shouldn't slip around on the road. If they do, he says you should probably have them checked out. He also says it's not a bad idea to get your entire car looked at. "It's real cold. Cars just don't like the cold. They need a little extra lovin' this time of year," Long said.

We talked with some auto body shops today as well. They're also seeing an increase. One shop told us they see anywhere from three to seven cars a day. This month they've seen seven to 15 cars per day.

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