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Second Story Job in Jersey, Pt. 2

By Jim “Buck” Sorrenti

(This week, Jim Sorrenti continues the story of a car that crashed into the second story of a building in Toms River, New Jersey. We pick up the story where everyone has been ordered out of the structure by fire and rescue supervisors except for Accurate Towing Service.—Ed.)

As he stood on the top floor of a structurally compromised building, Thomas “Tom” James Makuch Jr., owner of Accurate Towing Service, found himself staring at an overturned Porsche Boxter in front of a huge hole in the building. He was standing in a pool of blood with the possibility of the building’s roof collapsing, while being watched by video cameras, live news station feeds from all the surrounding states, multiple police, fire and rescue agencies and personnel.

“It was a defining moment in my 25-plus year career as a TRAA Level 3 Recovery and Incident Management Recovery Supervisor. … There was tremendous PRESSURE!” Makuch related.

They extended the boom of the Jerr-Dan 50-ton up and out into the building over the Porsche. As space was confined, there was very little room for error; the head of the boom was virtually touching the ceiling of the room. They connected the two heavy-duty hooks and cables to the chains to the rigging on the Porsche.

“I was in constant communication by radio with (wrecker/crane operator) Alex (Mace) down in the parking lot at the controls of our Jerr-Dan 50-ton,” Makuch said. “I moved both cables slowly and cautiously as the weight from the vehicle was being raised. I could feel the floor start to move beneath my feet as the 3,000-pound car was lifted. Because of the flexing of the building, parts of the ceiling started to fall from the roof structure.

“At that point we stopped again,” Makuch said.

While utilizing the heavy-duty wrecker’s hydraulics, Accurate decided to boom in and bring the rear of the car towards the front of the building simultaneously by using the cable from the left side winching in and bring the front of the car winching out. They used that technique several times to exit the car out the front of the building and bring it down.

“We then used the hydraulic underreach as the car came forward out of the building to apply pressure to the car,” Makuch said. “Using the winches, we manipulated the car around, letting the back hang down further (while) lifting the front up higher, causing the car to almost stand up straight vertical position; while repeatedly booming in several more times to bring the car out of the building completely while using pry bars to pry the front bumper out of the studs of the adjoining room wall.”

Makuch then directed the wrecker operator and the crew members to pull the truck forward approximately 10 feet. At that point, crew members and the heavy recovery operator were instructed to level off the car using the winches once the vehicle was level the vehicle was slowly lowered to the ground.

At the request of the Crime Scene Investigators, the vehicle was placed on its roof in order to take pictures of the car’s underbody to document damages for continued investigation. Accurate Towing was then instructed to overturn and upright the vehicle once CSI finished. Crew members rigged the car using chains around the undercarriage to perform a reverse roll.

“We performed the reverse roll putting the car back to the right-side-up position,” Makuch said. “Crew members began to work on the ground floor picking up building debris and other various debris by moving them all into piles. We carefully swept the parking lot free from debris—wood, nails, sharp objects—to prevent any flat tires on any of our or rescue team, trucks and rigs, in addition to the safety of all emergency crew members.

“Crew members also retrieved and recovered dislodged various parts of the vehicle such as tires, convertible top, bumpers, mirrors, all various etc., throughout the perimeter of the crash scene which spanned from Hooper Avenue, into adjacent woods and building.”

Accurate Towing Service noticed the car started to leak gasoline and oil from the engine and the front bay where the fuel tank sits. Acting quickly, crew members and recovery operators spread absorbent onto the areas to contain a potential hazmat situation.

They were then instructed to load the car up on one of the flatbeds. Crew members lifted the car onto the deck of a red car carrier vehicle was then chained down and taken back to their storage facility. Two other flatbeds were used to load all the vehicle parts and debris that was scattered in piles around the crash site. They were tied down using straps to prevent falling debris while in transport. All parts and debris were transported back to Accurate’s yard to be stored.

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Second Story Job in Jersey, Pt. 1

By Jim “Buck” Sorrenti

Thomas “Tom” James Makuch Jr. owns Accurate Towing Service based in Toms River, New Jersey, along with his wife, Cynthia. He started the company in 1987.

On the morning of Nov. 10, 2019, at approximately 1:30 a.m., a 2010 red Porsche Boxster convertible was traveling at a very high rate of speed. Its driver lost control, hit a center median and struck an embankment that launched it into the second-story office of a real estate agency.

The crash was discovered at approximately 6:30 a.m.

Though no one was inside the building at the time of the crash, the driver and his passenger, both in their early twenties, were pronounced dead at the scene.

Emergency crews, including Accurate Towing Service, were dispatched to the scene. The emergency crews included the Toms River Police Department and other law enforcement, nearby fire departments and coordinators, EMS, investigators a rescue task force, the Ocean County Prosecutors office, building safety inspectors and all utility authorities.

The two occupants of the vehicle were still inside the car that was upside down, and had to be extricated.

Tom responded along with his daughter, ground safety supervisor Kaitlin Makuch Mace; her husband, wrecker/crane operator Alex Mace; and operators Robert Nelson, Mathew Kelly and Robert Walsh for rigging and recovery. They brought their 2017 Kenworth T880 with Jerr-Dan HDL1000 50-ton hydraulic crane wrecker; a 2016 Peterbilt 337/Century hydraulic wrecker; a 2019 Freightliner M2/Century Series 16 LCG; two 2017 Hino 258/Jerr-Dan 21.5’ flatbeds; and a Dodge Ram four-wheel-drive support unit.

“Upon arriving on scene,” Tom said, “we observed a red sports car upside down on the second story of the building. It was clear that the building and structure were not safe whatsoever. There was a gaping hole in the front of the building in addition to the corner source and the side of the building.

“The concern was with the sustained structural impact that there was little to no support for the remaining walls and there was the potential for the roof of the building to collapse at any moment with the weight of the vehicle resting in the second floor.”

Tom worked closely with the fire and rescue departments. The emergency crews rebuilt some makeshift support walls in the basement, main floor and the top floor. More support was needed to the structure as while at one point inside the crash scene, the front corner of the roof started to collapse. Fire department rescue workers added additional support beams from floor to ceiling to keep the ceiling and roof from collapsing.

Accurate’s crew had to work carefully around the bodies of the deceased victims until the coroner’s office came to retrieve the bodies.

“The recovery scene was very unsafe because the victims were hanging upside down in the car for a few hours, causing both victims to virtually bleed out; therefore there was excess blood spread thickly throughout the floor making it a slippery biohazard situation for all involved,” Tom said. “We tried to lay ceiling tiles over the blood-soaked area in addition to absorbent so we would minimize the danger and exposure to our crew members. The Porsche was heavily damaged and mangled in the crash, which made it difficult to try to identify safe points to chain and rig, and support the vehicle.

“We choked up on chains tightly because of the limited room we had to work with. One chain was around the rear suspension where it mounts to the engine cradle; the other chain we fed through the front cradle near the body mounts using Grade 100 1/2” chain. We located spots in the aluminum undercarriage and frame to safely support and rig the vehicle.”

The Silverton Fire Department and other rescue teams worked simultaneously on removing some of the brick facade on the front of the building to increase the entrance crash hole so there would be less impediment from the movement of the car when the extrication of the vehicle from the second story commenced.

Once rigged, the crew faced another challenge. When the Porsche had violently crashed through the building, the front end of the vehicle went through the wall of the next room and the aluminum bumper support was hung up on several wall studs in the bathroom. At this point fire and rescue teams stated that there was nothing else that could be done with the structure.

“We all knew what we were dealing with,” Tom said. “It was a VERY dangerous situation! Fire and rescue supervisors announced and yelled out to rescue teams, “EVERY ONE THAT DOES NOT WORK FOR ACCURATE TOWING SERVICE, EVACUATE THE BUILDING NOW!”

(To be continued next week.)

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Do you have a recovery to share with TIW readers? Send some pics and info to our Field Editor Jim “Buck” Sorrenti at jimchaos69@yahoo.com ; your story may even be selected for print in American Towman magazine!

Dump Stuck

By Jim “Buck” Sorrenti

Battelini’s Garage Inc. in Landisville, New Jersey, has been in business for more than 95 years. Alesio Battelini started Battelini's in 1921. Albert Battelini is the president of the company; he co-owns it with his brother Anthony and their father Dominick. This family owned and operated business is going on their fourth generation.

Recently, they received a call to recover a heavily laden tri-axle dump truck.

Battelini said, “At 10 in the morning on November 4, 2019, we got called by a long-time customer. The customer explained that their tri-axle dump, loaded with 73,000 pounds of sand, was stuck on Route 55 southbound in Vineland, New Jersey.”

He responded with Unit 8212, his Ole12 wrecker. Ole12 is a 1982 Western Star/1986 3500 NRC heavy. The NRC unit is a 40-ton unit with a three-stage fixed boom and a 35,000-lbs. under reach. It also has a 60,000-lbs. Braden drag winch.

Operator Lou Roberson responded in their 2015 Peterbilt/NRC 40CS 40-ton. This unit, with NRC’s sliding system, handles both towing and recovery duties for Battelini’s.

“When we arrived on scene,” Battelini said, “we found the loaded tri-axle in the median with its driver’s side tandems stuck in the sand.”

Battelini staged Ole12 with its business end back to the nose of the stuck dump and Lou positioned the NRC 40CS in front of Ole12.

“We used Ole12 to winch the dump out 100 feet onto roadway,” Battelini said. “Using Ole12 and the 60,000-pound drag winch with 2-1/2 inch grade 100 chains to the front tow pins. We just had the NRC 40CS there for standby in case Ole12 wouldn't plant, but it did.”

With Battelini at the controls, crouched down with his eyes on the stuck dump, he steadily pulled it out of the sand.

“We left the tri-axle in neutral and pulled it with Ole12. If we were to try letting the tri-axle help us, I felt it would have made it worse by spinning himself down and breaking the driveline.”

Once the dump was back on solid ground it was able to continue on its way.

Show Yours @ TIW
Do you have a recovery to share with TIW readers? Send some pics and info to our Field Editor Jim “Buck” Sorrenti at jimchaos69@yahoo.com; your story may even be selected for print in American Towman magazine!