Johnboy's Towing receives 10 to 15 calls on average during an entire shift. By noon Thursday, during the heavy rain and wind, they had received 13 calls for service.
Tow truck driver Brody Sinay said many of these calls are correlated with the weather.
"Most of our work when it's raining is accidents. We also do a lot of recovery work. So it's trucks or cars that are stuck, slid off the road, things like that. But about 80 percent of it is accidents," Sinay said.
He said a large number of the accidents they see happen along the Cuesta Grade.
“Coming down the grade and/or going up the grade, you got to be really careful because, you know, you're going up it and you can end up hydroplaning going to the hillside. If you're coming down it and you hydroplane, you can hit another vehicle or you can end up off the freeway down below," Sinay said.
Cuesta College student Sophie Sanchez said she drives the grade rain or shine.
“Three days a week I go up and down the grade," Sanchez said. "During the rain, I definitely am a little bit more nervous about that.”
Sinay said they respond to towing requests according to priority.
“We have ETAs anywhere from 30 minutes to up to two hours depending on the call. If we get a [call from] law enforcement, that's at the top of our list. And then once we get those done, we go on to our normal accounts or just people calling us for tows or jump starts or anything like that," he said.
The California Highway Patrol recommends the following driving practices during heavy rains:
- Increase your following distance
- Slow down to avoid hydroplaning
- Don't make sudden stops
- Allow extra time when driving
