Pulling a vehicle out of the ditch, your thoughts?

So I was driving through blue river last night at about 11:00 pm and almost to vale there was a truck in the ditch, they were trying to pull it out with a 2wd half ton dodge, so I pulled over and asked if they needed some help as I have 4x4 and they gratefully said yes. So I hook up to him and some lady pulls up, starts yelling at me saying how dangerous it was (I was off to the side of the road, and not a car as far as the eye could see) and I said "If it was you back there would you want me to stop?" and she said "That's irrelevant, I'm calling the cops". So I roll up my window, throttled down and pulled him out. Guy gets out, shakes my hand and said "Thank you very much I was there a while". And we both went on our way. Never saw the cops. But what that lady said Irked me, whats more unsafe; Taking 5 minutes and pulling him out? Or driving by while the guy freezes to death?? It was an old rusty F150, so assuming he couldn't afford to call a tow truck, not to mention they were probably stinkin' busy yesterday! People just need to keep their nose out of other people's business! When you go off the road and have to sit their for 5 hours waiting for a tow just think about this one lady....Oy vey

Joey you did the right thing, should have got the lady's phone number and asked her out later, then dumped after your first date.

You did the right thing Joey. Im assuming you had your 4 ways on? Did you sell the 670? You didn't call to pick up the trailing arms I offered you is why I'm wondering.

We live on a farm and yes drive 4 x4's, I pull on average 10 people a winter out of the ditch....

I won’t pull out a car that I can’t see the frame or something to pull on, seen a guy try going under the front bumper to the frame and it still damaged the bumper...

Also won’t pull out drunks, drove the guy to his friends at 1:30 on a Thursday, and stayed in the driveway till I saw him go inside....

Called the cops on the guy that throw a beer bottle at my truck, he missed and had his chance; he wanted me to pull him out...

The most common thing I see is both the driver and the vehicles aren’t prepared, bad tires, wrong tires, no winter gear….drives me nuts….

Came across a young gal driving a Denali pick up with low profile summer tires on big rims, she had a thin leather coat, no hat, no gloves it’s -27 oh and two young kids in the back seat, it’s now 11:30 on a sat night and she had been waiting for a tow truck for two hours already
She had turned onto the hwy and the tire unseated off the rim when it slid into a rut, she had attempted to get her spare down, the it wont budge, a common problem, I tried, could get it down, went to the farm came back with a pry bar and bolt cutters hoping to get it down a bit to cut the cable, no luck….
As the tire was just unseated, I offered to take her , her kids and her tire to the farm, and re-mount it, she said she wasn’t comfortable, my wife had kids were with me when we stopped, only the boy came back with me, but fine, I then offered to take just the tire….
I started walking away when she voiced her concern about me stealing her tire and real expensive rim….
I stopped at the truck door, when she finally apologized and asked if I would air her tire….
I took it to the farm, had to warm the darn thing up, before it would stretch to seat on the rim, finally got back, she looked worried but happy to see us, she said she would install the tire herself….
She stayed in her truck while I was telling her we’d do it for her, meanwhile my son mounted the tire…
She offered to pay us, I gave her one of our racing business cards and said Merry Christmas, call if you have any more trouble, she jumped out and gave us both a hug, seems she had ran out from her boy friend’s apartment with his truck and was heading to her parents….

FYI you did the right thing, you never know when it just might be your turn that needs a hand, it was the way I was brought up and the way I brought up my kids….

Have pulled lots of folks out also .
Sorry to say though that's it's not legal to do so .
Look it up and you will be surprised the complications if something goes wrong .

I asked my dad about this (retired RCMP) and he told me as long as you don't impede the flow of traffic and it's not on a corner or over a hill where a vehicle may not have time to react safely you are fine (use common sense). He said even if the police pull up on you and your ready to go they likely will even stop traffic for you so long as you are doing it safely as they don't want to wait on a tow truck either. Best bet he said was to tow the vehicle out while staying off of the roadway (or to the right of the white line on paved roads) if possible. Just keep in mind if another vehicle collides with you while you are doing this, you will be found at fault.

good job helping a ditched guy out, never mind the b*tchy old lady that didn't agree with your help. not to mention between blue river and valemount i usually never have cell service 20-30mins out of vale. I came across a rolled truck out of vale a couple years ago and i had to drive towards valemount 5-10mins before we could call a tow truck for the guy.

In Alberta it's illegal to pull someone out without using an amber rotating beacon light.
Most times the RCMP will overlook it as your being a Good Samaritan but in reality they can fine you, or if an accident is caused by you pulling someone out with no Amber Light, count on being at fault.

There is a group from Calgary on another forum I'm part of and they go out during bad weather looking for people to pull out. There are a few CPS members on the same forum and they just say to get a yellow strobe if doing it often.

in ANY other situation i would say absolutely go nuts help a guy out. but knowing where you were that highway is a death machine without vehicles all over the already narrow shoulders. typically that highway is always a sheet of ice, it has narrow shoulders, there are steep hills, sharp corners, embankments, cliffs,snowdust, fully loaded semis going mach 1 without a care in the world. fully loaded sled trailers, people in regular vehicles, people in regular vehicles that dont know how to properly drive for the conditions, and pretty much no room for error. in that situation you should have offered to make the phone call and get the folks with the proper tools to do the job. they will setup flaggers on each end with flashing warning lights incase of a corner or hill. and they will rotate lanes to make the recovery safe. this isnt backroad alberta where farmer joe hits the ditch and needs a tug or a two lane divided highway with lots of room. you can make that situation ALOT worse. with you on the shoulder towing and two semis in either direction that leaves you about 2.5 inches to spare and if its downhill or around a corner who knows if they have the time to slow or stop or make it past eachother. its just a bad situation and all the variables for bad things to happen are always present on that highway without any self inflicted variables. Leave it to the pros next time please. for my safety and yours. He might have to wait a couple more hours but me, you and buddy are still alive.

depending on the situation, in your case, with out a doubt. But in rush traffic. I'll make sure they called for help but I'm not stopping traffic to pull them out. Also if they have no hooks or anything that looks strong enough to tug on, I leave them, After making sure they called for help and help is on the way.

On a straight stretch of road with good visibility I would stop and help.If I was concerned about my own safety I would only stop long enough to see if they wanted me to make a call when I got to cell service.

maxwell said:

in ANY other situation i would say absolutely go nuts help a guy out. but knowing where you were that highway is a death machine without vehicles all over the already narrow shoulders. typically that highway is always a sheet of ice, it has narrow shoulders, there are steep hills, sharp corners, embankments, cliffs,snowdust, fully loaded semis going mach 1 without a care in the world. fully loaded sled trailers, people in regular vehicles, people in regular vehicles that dont know how to properly drive for the conditions, and pretty much no room for error. in that situation you should have offered to make the phone call and get the folks with the proper tools to do the job. they will setup flaggers on each end with flashing warning lights incase of a corner or hill. and they will rotate lanes to make the recovery safe. this isnt backroad alberta where farmer joe hits the ditch and needs a tug or a two lane divided highway with lots of room. you can make that situation ALOT worse. with you on the shoulder towing and two semis in either direction that leaves you about 2.5 inches to spare and if its downhill or around a corner who knows if they have the time to slow or stop or make it past eachother. its just a bad situation and all the variables for bad things to happen are always present on that highway without any self inflicted variables. Leave it to the pros next time please. for my safety and yours. He might have to wait a couple more hours but me, you and buddy are still alive.

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I rarely pull someone out on the highway, I don't need someone coming around the corner and hitting me. If they hit the ditch there, what's stopping the next person from sliding in at the same spot.


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If I am going to pull someone out they are the ones that are hooking on to their vehicle and then giving me the go ahead to pull. I would only do it if the area was safe for all concerned and there was a good chance of success first try.

Shoulda told her that she was creating a bigger risk by stopping to bitch you out while you could be pulling the guy out. My .02
I've pulled lots of people out in the winter with my pick up and winch truck, wouldn't be able to sleep at night wondering if they got out when it's -40. I always let them hook up their vehicle though, so if anything gets wrecked its on them.


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Forgot to mention that I usually hand them one end of the tow rope and let them hook their end.

catinthehat said:

If I am going to pull someone out they are the ones that are hooking on to their vehicle and then giving me the go ahead to pull. I would only do it if the area was safe for all concerned and there was a good chance of success first try.

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woody_tobius_jr said:

Shoulda told her that she was creating a bigger risk by stopping to bitch you out while you could be pulling the guy out. My .02
I've pulled lots of people out in the winter with my pick up and winch truck, wouldn't be able to sleep at night wondering if they got out when it's -40. I always let them hook up their vehicle though, so if anything gets wrecked its on them.


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It slightly depends on a few factor's IMO.(traffic flow, how isolated, hill, corner,ect)
BUT.................... Anyone of you that would leave a person stranded in the winter
stuck in the ditch should be ashamed to call yourself a human being , let alone a
CANADIAN............ World wide we are thought of as friendly , kind , caring people.

As far as the law is concerned, I don't need some blood sucking rich scumbag from Ottawa to tell
me what's right or wrong. Morals tell me what is right or wrong not some stupid piece of paper.

maxwell said:

in ANY other situation i would say absolutely go nuts help a guy out. but knowing where you were that highway is a death machine without vehicles all over the already narrow shoulders. typically that highway is always a sheet of ice, it has narrow shoulders, there are steep hills, sharp corners, embankments, cliffs,snowdust, fully loaded semis going mach 1 without a care in the world. fully loaded sled trailers, people in regular vehicles, people in regular vehicles that dont know how to properly drive for the conditions, and pretty much no room for error. in that situation you should have offered to make the phone call and get the folks with the proper tools to do the job. they will setup flaggers on each end with flashing warning lights incase of a corner or hill. and they will rotate lanes to make the recovery safe. this isnt backroad alberta where farmer joe hits the ditch and needs a tug or a two lane divided highway with lots of room. you can make that situation ALOT worse. with you on the shoulder towing and two semis in either direction that leaves you about 2.5 inches to spare and if its downhill or around a corner who knows if they have the time to slow or stop or make it past eachother. its just a bad situation and all the variables for bad things to happen are always present on that highway without any self inflicted variables. Leave it to the pros next time please. for my safety and yours. He might have to wait a couple more hours but me, you and buddy are still alive.

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Good advice. I do agree with you, but where he was it was on a pretty straight stretch of road, I had my 4 ways on, and we also had a van that stopped to help on the one side of us with 4 ways (on the shoulder) and the 2wd Ram in front of us on the shoulder with his 4 ways on. I had him out in less than 10 minutes, hitch to hitch and it went really smooth, I think the only vehicle that came along was the lady that freaked out at me. I have snow tires on my truck and carry chains with me, I also have a tow chain and heavy duty tow strap, so I am usually pretty prepared. I just know what its like to be stuck and how much it sucks to watch 40 trucks pass by you. If I can help I will. They were very grateful and it only took me an extra 10 minutes.

I grew up in the country and found the mail man stuck in the ditch and wedged into a stop sign on a dirt road. Pulled him out with my chevy and screwed the
side of his truck in the process by dragging the side of his truck across the stop sign. Whoops! well at least your out,, I got to go now haha

HotShotHarry said:

You did the right thing Joey. Im assuming you had your 4 ways on? Did you sell the 670? You didn't call to pick up the trailing arms I offered you is why I'm wondering.

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Sorry man! I forgot! I did sell it, I need christmas money because my truck broke down at the beginning of december and I had to dump my savings into it