(WSIL) 鈥斅燨ur early winter weather event caused many accidents across the region which kept聽tow companies busy Monday night and Tuesday morning.
Shawn Hughes, Operations Manager at Vernell鈥檚 Interstate Service, says Monday鈥檚 weather had employees working around the clock.
Hughes聽explains,聽"The phones kept us all pretty steady.聽A聽lot of the guys had to work late long hours.聽We had to call a few guys in to keep the wreckers moving."
Illinois State police reports 22 crashes and 55 motorist assists between Monday at 1 p.m.聽and Tuesday at 8 a.m.聽The crashes were non-life threatening and troopers towed 5 vehicles.
Hughes elaborates,聽"Immediately we get dispatched out to start assisting and aiding in traffic crashes and ween some trucks back onto the roads so things can move smooth."聽Vernell鈥檚 not only stayed busy towing cars last night聽but were swamped this morning assisting motorists due to the cold temperatures.
Hughes says,聽"We do towing and we do the roadside recovery, so we get a lot of calls for trucks being froze up, needing to move and so we send our service trucks out and they dethaw them so they can continue their day."
Illinois State Police asks that drivers remember Scott鈥檚 Law, slow down and move over for first responders.
Hughes explains, "The biggest thing is the all the warning lights and stuff that we put out, it鈥檚 very dangerous out there on the interstate. We can鈥檛 ask people enough to slow down when they see us because we want to go home too."
Illinois State Police say that most of the accidents occurred in Jefferson County.聽
