Clearing the Chaos: Inside the I-95 Recovery
Tow Companies Join Forces in Massive 69-Vehicle Pileup Recovery
By George L. Nitti
When dense fog enveloped the Lake Marion Bridge on Interstate 95 in South Carolina in early October, a chain-reaction crash involving 69 vehicles—54 passenger vehicles and 15 tractor-trailers—brought traffic to a standstill.
With no emergency lanes on the aging bridge, first responders faced difficulty reaching injured motorists. Firefighters and EMS personnel sometimes had to park and carry equipment on foot to reach the wreckage. No fatalities were reported, but once emergency crews had attended to the injured and investigators began their work, an enormous recovery operation remained.
Tow companies from across the region converged on the scene. Jody Taylor of Taylor Made Towing estimated that roughly two dozen towing services responded.
“It was massive mayhem,” Taylor said. “It was crazy. It was just everywhere, carnage everywhere.”
Waiting for the Green Light
Taylor arrived around 9 a.m. with two rollback trucks but initially encountered gridlocked traffic. Tow operators staged nearby until authorities allowed them to approach the crash.
Robbie Spigner of Bob’s Body Shop, whose family has been towing since 1962, brought two heavy-duty wreckers and two rollbacks. After more than 50 years in the business, he had never seen a pileup of this magnitude.
“I've been through on that same bridge for about 50 years, and I've never seen one that bad with that many vehicles involved,” Spigner said.
Tracy Richburg said her husband, Alan, arrived with the company’s single truck, a 2016 Ford F-550 equipped with a Jerr-Dan rollback. They waited from approximately 9 a.m. until 2:30 p.m. before beginning recoveries.
“We had, I think, everybody from Clarendon, and they had some from Sumter, Lee County, Orangeburg County, and I think some from even Columbia came,” Richburg said.
A Coordinated Recovery
The South Carolina Highway Patrol controlled access to the bridge, calling tow trucks forward as needed. Operators loaded vehicles and transported them to a nearby rest area before returning to stage for another assignment.
“It was in and out, in and out, in and out,” Taylor said.
Cherron Lawson of Lawson’s Towing brought three rollbacks and a Class A wrecker. His company recovered 11 vehicles, the largest total reported among the operators interviewed.
Lawson credited Princess Towing & Recovery with helping keep the operation moving. Although he could not confirm that Princess had been formally designated as the lead, he said its personnel moved damaged vehicles away from bridge walls, positioned them for waiting wreckers and helped clear debris.
Princess also brought a skid steer and dump trailer to collect vehicle fragments scattered across the roadway. Absorbent material was used to address spilled fluids and help keep the working area passable.
Severely Damaged Vehicles
Many of the vehicles could not be driven or conventionally loaded. Richburg said three of the four vehicles her husband recovered were effectively totaled.
Green Towing Service owner Sam Green recovered five vehicles with one 2022 Freightliner heavy-duty flatbed equipped with a 22-foot Jerr-Dan bed. One particularly difficult recovery involved a Dodge dually pickup towing a car carrier that had become trapped beneath another trailer.
Taylor Made recovered nine vehicles using two rollbacks, including a Peterbilt flatbed and a Chevrolet 5500 rollback. Bob’s Body Shop recovered four vehicles: a large diesel-pusher motorhome, an 18-wheeler and two passenger vehicles. Spigner said the motorhome had struck the rear of the tractor-trailer.
Working Into the Night
Clearing the bridge was only part of the job. Vehicles were initially taken to the rest area, but the tow companies were later instructed to move them to their storage facilities.
Richburg said she and her husband expected to go home and return the following morning. Instead, they were called back around 11 p.m. to clear vehicles from the rest area. They worked until approximately 4:30 a.m.
Lawson’s Towing faced a similarly long day. Lawson said his work began around 3:30 a.m. and he did not get home until approximately the same time the following morning.
“It was something that needed to be done, and we got it done,” Lawson said.
Taylor also spent the night handling invoices and arranging vehicle storage. The aftermath brought a new set of responsibilities: contacting owners, coordinating with insurers, protecting personal belongings and arranging vehicle releases.
Taylor said he encouraged owners to retrieve their belongings as soon as possible. One damaged van contained valuable tools, so his company secured it and protected its windows.
Lawson said several motorists had already retrieved vehicles that were caught in the pileup but had not actually been damaged. They had abandoned them during the emergency evacuation.
An Effort No One Company Could Handle Alone
For the towmen, the immediate challenge was getting the interstate open again. Their accounts reveal a recovery that involved hours of waiting, carefully controlled access, badly damaged vehicles, debris removal and repeated trips between the bridge and staging areas.
For Spigner, the scale remained unprecedented after more than five decades in the business.
He had seen crashes involving six, eight or 10 vehicles.
But never 69.
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