H&H Towing puts safety first on the road

H&H Towing in Corpus Christi is all about helping people in need. For the past 30 years, this family-owned business has passed from one generation to the next. 
As one of the current operators, Christine Puckett said she grew up on the tow lot, learning the business from her dad and brothers. She and her husband, Daniel, took it over in 2006. 
“She was a young kid being a pest around the drivers,” Daniel Puckett said. “But she was learning the business. The original owners still have a role in it as far as mentors, but the physical everyday is just me and her.”
The Pucketts have worked hard to grow the business into the trusted service it is today. Daniel gives a lot of the credit to his drivers, whom he considers the face of the company. 
“They are respectable and likable,” he said. 
H&H Towing focuses on helping stranded motorists and regularly works with mechanic shops. The company is also on emergency-response rotation with the Corpus Christi Police Department.
“We respond to some of the fatal accidents,” Daniel said as he sadly recalled a time he removed a vehicle from under a bridge with the victim still inside. “This is an emotional, stressful job. Sometimes, we have to see what other people shouldn’t.”
Despite the horror stories, Daniel enjoys the job and doing his part to help a stranded motorist in a time of need. 
“My priority is that little old lady who blew out her tire on the highway and is scared to death,” he said. “We have done our job when we get to somebody in enough time and pick them up, give them something cold to drink, take them to a safe location so that they can proceed with their day.”
Driving a wrecker is not usually a popular profession, he continued. 
“A lot of people look at wrecker drivers like, you’re the bad guy, you take my car when you’re not supposed to,” Daniel said. 
Which is why H&H no longer works with apartment complexes or parking lots.
“That type of towing gives you a bad name,” he said. “And it’s very dangerous. People don’t understand that their vehicle is illegally parked; they think it is getting stolen. They’re upset and ready to fight. I don’t like putting my drivers in that kind of danger.”
When it comes down to it, Puckett’s biggest concern is safety. He stressed how unnerving it can be when they’re out on the highway and people are driving 70 mph around the trucks as they are picking up stranded vehicles. Many people don’t recognize tow trucks as emergency vehicles.
“A number of wrecker drivers get killed each year, even if we’re wearing reflective vests,” Puckett said. “We were implemented into the move-over law, and we need the public to understand that we want to go home just as much as they do.”
The Move Over/Slow Down law requires motorists to move over one lane or slow down 20 mph below the posted speed limit when emergency vehicles are spotted on the side of the road. Most people understand this to be police, fire and EMS vehicles, but in 2011, the Texas Department of Public Safety added tow trucks into the mix.
“I can remember one scary incident, a few years ago, when Corpus Christi iced up,” Daniel said. “A driver slid through the ice and smashed into the vehicle we were picking up from an overpass and, like dominos, smashed into the tow truck, which almost pushed me off the bridge. Even with law enforcement around. If people just paid attention to the road instead of trying to see what we’re doing, we could all go on safely.”
Puckett has a few safety tips for anyone who has broken down or gets stranded on the road. 
“The best thing to do when you break down is to safely get out of the vehicle and stand on the shoulder, away from traffic,” he said. “If you can’t get out, stay seat belted and call 911 right away to have police officers come out and block traffic, and most importantly, save your life.”

H&H Towing is located at 2530 Holly Road in Corpus Christi. Call (361) 854-4414 or visit towingincorpuschristi.net for more information.