Owners of local towing company telling drivers to ‘move over or slow down’

George and Anita Moore will never forget who they met on Tuesday, June 12, 2018, because they will never see him again.

The pair are the owners of Moore's BP Amoco and were at the Washington County Fairgrounds to promote the Spirit Ride, a traveling memorial for first responders and tow-truck drivers when they met Johnny Stewart, a 39-year-old driver for GT Tow out of Kansas City, Missouri.

Stewart drove the casket, which is part of the memorial at Spirit Ride, up to George. The casket is taken across the country in order to raise awareness for how quickly first responders can go from helping, to being in the casket. The two shook hands and exchanged gratitude for the work the other did as a driver in a dangerous work environment.

'The people who work on the road, we want them home,” Anita explained as she played with a black-and-yellow paracord bracelet on her wrist. The black cord acts as a reminder of those who have died while on the job and the yellow a representation of those still doing the work despite the dangers.

That was the last time the Moores would ever see Stewart. On Nov. 18, 2018, Stewart was out on a call when he was hit and killed by a drunken driver driving on a suspended license while Stewart was on duty. He was the second employee death GT Tow grieved in six years.

The Spirit Ride

The Spirit Ride was founded by the American Towman Magazine and B/A Products as a way to promote awareness of the 'move over” laws and honor the fallen. A casket, decorated to reflect the colors of the American flag, is relayed from city to city.

Once the casket arrives at its destination, a ceremony is conducted and a handshake given before the memorial moves on to the next city. According to the Sprit Ride website, in 2017 the memorial reached 140 cities and by the end of this year is expected to reach at least 300.

George said transporting the casket is important to him because the reality is that his job can be scary and dangerous. He himself has been hit once before and had a close call several years ago.

'It's every day that we're in peril,” he said, commenting that trucking magazines have even begun publishing obituaries of tow-truck drivers who have been killed while working because it's happened so often.

George said getting to tow the casket gave him mixed emotions. On one hand, he was honored to be able to pay tribute to the fallen but on the other, upset such extreme measures are required to emphasize something as simple as slowing down and moving over.

'It seems like such a simple thing,” he said. 'Why do we have to go to this extreme to make this point?”

He described the casket as a 'shock and awe” to prove to drivers that they are the ones responsible for making sure first responders make it home safely in the cab of the truck and not in the casket.

'I'm not angry that we have to do it to draw awareness, I'm just exasperated that it has to be done,” he said, his voice laced with disappointment.

Amy Gresham, owner of GT Tow Service, in Kansas City, Mo., said her company has been participating in the ride since the conception. The casket was brought to Washington by one of their drivers, Johny Stewart, because the company has personally witnessed the consequences of ignorant driving. Six years ago, Gresham's 18-year-old son Blake, a driver for the company, was killed while out on a call.

'I think that everybody needs to learn that they need to obey the law,” she said. 'It's sad that people don't understand.”

The company has since started a campaign, 'Move over for Blake” encouraging people to slow down, move over and make room for first responders to work safely.

'It's very important that everybody needs to learn to obey the law,” she reiterated.

One company, two deaths

Blake Gresham, of Smithville, Mo., was hit and killed while out on a call for his parents' company, GT Tow Service. He died on Aug. 27, 2012, a month-and-a-half before his 19th birthday. The driver who hit him has never been caught.

Anita said hearing about a death, especially of someone so young, broke her heart. 'Who's next?”

John 'Johnny” Stewart, of Liberty, Mo., drove his truck up to Washington, Iowa, on June 12, 2018, with the Spirit Ride casket in tow. He'd been a driver for over 12 years and spent most of that time as a driver at GT Tow Service out of Kansas City, Mo.

He met with the Moores and performed the ceremonial handshake with George before saying goodbye and heading off for the five-hour drive home. George and Anita never spoke to him again.

On Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2018, Stewart just completed a tow and was walking back to his truck when he was struck by a drunken driver driving on a suspended license. Stewart was killed on impact and the driver was later arrested and charged.

Back in Washington, Anita learned of his death from an obituary in the magazine.

'I cried all night,” she said upon hearing the news. 'This man from Missouri was just at our house in June and now he's dead. When you can put a face and a person to that name, it's unnerving.”

The Impact

'This man who was helping to promote the ‘slow down and move over' law was killed and that's as real as it gets,” Anita said with determination. 'This is real. It is horrible and there's all kinds of reasons that the people working the white lines get hit. That casket that we carried from town to town did not have anybody in it and that's the way you want it, but with the way things are going, the reality is tow-truck drivers are in caskets a lot.”

George agreed, saying although he does everything he can, he knows he cannot guarantee his own safety because it is in the hands of everyone else on the road to slow down, move over, and follow the law.

'There's only so much you can do as a driver to project yourself,” he explained.

Anita said Stewart's death not only leaves a hole in her heart but causes her to worry increasingly when her husband goes out on calls.

'When he goes out, to say I'm on edge is an understatement,” she said with tears in her eyes. Anita explained she wants to know where he is going, what kind of tow it is, how long it will take and when he thinks he will be back because she's afraid of never seeing him again.

Over the Thanksgiving weekend, Washington received over 13 inches of snow, causing George to go out and take care of the city while Anita stayed at home, waiting by the phone nervously. He was so busy he was unable to call and tell her he was going to be out longer than expected that she worked herself into a frenzy of fearing the worst.

She eventually called him and once he confirmed he was OK and gave her a new update, she was able to stop running worst-case scenarios.

'I don't want anybody coming up to me later and giving me condolences because my husband was killed,” she said. 'I want them to slow down and move over.”

Creating a safer roadway

The Moores agree that the No. 1 reason first responders are getting hit is because people are distracted while driving. George said he's even pulled a car from a ditch where the driver told him they were eating a sandwich, not focusing on the road, and missed the curve, sending them into the ditch.

'It just takes an instant for somebody to get distracted,” he said.

George describes the white lines from the side of the road to the shoulder as 'his office” and asks that drivers respect his space as they expect to be respected in their own.

'One of the best analogies I can give is you're sitting in your chair in your office, and a semi drives by you at 70 miles an hour. Is that not a little bit unnerving?” he said, explaining that his 'office” is always in a dangerous location and that his safety is up to the drivers on the road.

Most states, Iowa included, have laws that require drivers to slow down and change lanes if they see an emergency vehicle at work. George says just like other laws, people tend to ignore it, in favor of getting where they want to be.

He said it's incredibly frustrating when people do not simply slow down because it only takes 15 seconds of their day to possibly guarantee him his life. He works seven days a week, all hours of the day, to fix problems that other people cause. He says he feels disrespected when he's simply doing his job and others do not show him the same respect to his workplace as he gives them in theirs.

'To people who don't move over, I say to them I hope you're never along the side of the road and need help,” he said, once more emphasizing that those on the roadway while he is working have the responsibility to help keep him safe.

'There's a lot of people who appreciate what tow-truck drivers and police and responders do,” Anita explained. 'The way to honor them is to give them room to work.”

Move over or slow down

On July 1, 2018 the 'Move over law” expanded to include all vehicles with flashing lights. Drivers are now required to change lanes, if possible, and slow down if they are approaching any vehicle with flashing lights. The law was first put into place in 2002 and only included specific emergency and maintenance vehicles. The law has now expanded to include all vehicles with flashing or hazard lights, including private vehicles along the roadway.

George said it's important to give all vehicles the same courtesy because the speeds in which people drive can be dangerous and scary even for people in the car. He said he once came out to a tow where the driver crawled into the passenger's seat because they were scared of how fast the other cars were driving. George said he directly related because while that driver was safe in his car, he had to get out and walk along the roadside to get to the car.

For drivers who see a vehicle on the side of the road with lights on, George would like to encourage them to move over and slow down as soon as they notice. He said drivers are responsible for being the example for those following them because if a big car waits until the last minute, the small car behind might not notice in time because they cannot see around them and cause an accident.

'If the first car in a line moves over, a lot of times other cars will follow them,” he explained. 'You have to initiate the habit.”

'You may not always be able to move over, but you can always slow down,” Anita emphasized.

Moving forward

When they volunteered to pull the casket for the Spirit Ride back in June, they never dreamed it would have such a personal meaning, but now that it does, they want to convey to drivers that first responder lives matter and getting them home safely is entirely up to them.

'All the way through town, every vehicle pulled over,” she said of towing the casket from the fairgrounds to its next destination in Muscatine.

'If they can do that for a casket, they can have that same respect for a tow truck just out alongside the road,” George agreed.

Less than six months ago George and Anita Moore met Johnny Stewart at the fairgrounds. Now that he's gone, their passion to raise awareness has reached a new level of importance in their lives.

The Moores now have a ritual where they tell each other where they are going at all times, promise to check in at the nearest convenience and before he leaves, the bracelet on Anita's wrist acts as her reminder to give him one last simple instruction: 'Be the yellow. Come home.”