Gavin Vowell is always the last remaining to clean up the carnage.
Vowell works for insurance company NZI as a crash scene coordinator and has been working in vehicle and freight recovery for 20 years.
The former truck driver is in charge of a team of up to 15 workers who are on call at all hours to attend crash sites and pick up the pieces after a heavy vehicle accident.
The goal is to clear the road as quickly as possible without causing any more damage to the vehicles and making sure all the spilt goods and freight don’t do any environmental damage.
The recovery effort requires high-tech machinery, tow trucks, cranes, and even special airbags to carefully catch a vehicle as its lowered back onto its axles.
Drones are also used to survey the scene.
Emergency services are always first to take charge at an accident site and Vowell and his team get stuck in once police, fire and ambulance have done their job.
Attending accidents does take takes its toll, especially when there’s a fatality.
“You never get used to it,” Vowell says.
Trucks are getting a lot bigger now and the tow gear is also getting bigger as a result.
There’s also a lot of pressure on everyone involved to get traffic flowing again when highways have been closed for hours at a time.
“There’s so many parties involved … we’re the last people to deal with the scene.
“The police have to come and do their investigation and they do a very thorough job.
“A thorough job doesn’t take five minutes and they do it right but it does take a little bit of time.
“On the back of that we get put into action …‘OK guys, clean the road up’.
“People say ‘oh you take too long’, but we’re all working together and are trying to make it a better situation.
“NZI is leading the charge here,” Vowell says.
Managing spills to avoid environmental damage is a major part of the job and NZI sometimes engages specialised dangerous goods companies to take on the job.
“It’s a huge factor and over the years has quadrupled to what it used to be.
We have strict rules … if we know contractors aren’t capable of doing the job we won’t use contractors.”
The whole process works in favour of transport operators who can attend to their customers rather than spend time at the crash scene.
Crash scene assistance demo
NZI held a crash scene assistance demonstration at Hamilton’s Mystery Creek in April to highlight the important role the service plays during a crisis.
In recent years, deaths from crashes involving trucks have made up around 20% of the total road toll in New Zealand, while only 6% of the total distance travelled on New Zealand roads are travelled by trucks.
NZI national portfolio manager of commercial motor Ian Taylor says trucks are overrepresented in serious crashes because of their large mass.
“Often it’s not a truck driver at fault, but these crashes can be hugely traumatic for them because of the damage they can do with their vehicle,” he says.
Sometimes it’s enough to force truck drivers off the road completely and this is one of the reasons why NZI has introduced a crash scene assistance service to help in these situations.
“It’s crucial truck drivers have access to the right people immediately after a crash to get them out of harm’s way and take care of the clean-up so drivers can focus solely on getting the emotional support they often need,” Taylor says.
The company’s 24/7 response team operates around the country and whether it’s Te Puke or Te Anau they will be on site as soon as possible.
An automatic response hotline is available for drivers to call immediately after an accident and the NZI team takes over from there.
“As well as salvaging your vehicle, we’ll take care of any road clean-up, environmental issues, and driver support that’s needed.
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Such a service is also crucial as congestion is becoming an increasing issue on New Zealand roads.
The crash assistance team works alongside police and fire services to clear a crash scene safely, efficiently and by minimising traffic disruption.
All about safety
Senior Sergeant Lex Soepnel of the police commercial vehicle safety team says initiatives such as NZI’s are helping to make big improvements in emergency reponse situations.
“At the end of the day we’re all about safety on the roads.
“A lot of companies are generally trying to make the roads safer,” he says.
Although efforts are being made there is still a lot of work to do especially as Auckland, Hamilton and Tauranga gear up for bigger and heavier trucks.
In general, truck drivers aren’t at fault during collisions but there has been a worrying trend in areas where there is a lot of freight.
“We have a problem in the Bay of Plenty and Waikato where there is a high percentage of truck drivers at fault in crashes and we’re trying to address that with companies and trying to prevent that and help educate,” Soepnel says.
“Intersections are the main areas for these accidents and helping support driver training and managing driver fatigue are issues that are being dealt with.
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*The NZI automatic response hotline is 0800 11 11 08 that truck drivers can call immediately after an accident, and the crash assistance team will manage the rest.
