Tow truck driver recovering after being run over by vehicle he was towing

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    Lapeer, MI (WNEM) — A tow truck driver is recovering after he was hurt while delivering a vehicle to a Lapeer Dealership.

The owner of the towing company tells us a 19-year-old was unloading the vehicle on Tuesday when he was run over as it was coming off of the flatbed.

Questions remain about what happened after the accident, and how quickly the driver was able to get care.

“It was disbelief,” Larry LaCroix said.

That’s what LaCroix, the owner of Cut Rate Auto Repair, felt when he learned his Tow Truck driver Jacob Budrow was accidentally run over by a car.

LaCroix says it happened at Jim Riehl’s Friendly Automotive Group. That’s where Budrow was dropping off a vehicle.

“He got inside of it and set the emergency brake and tried to get the disabled vehicle off the truck,” LaCroix said. “And then he made a mistake and popped the shifter cable off, the emergency brake didn’t hold and the vehicle kind of rolled over top of him.”

Budrow suffered a collapsed lung, two broken ribs, and four fractured vertebrae.

LaCroix claims that workers at the dealership that saw the mishap didn’t call 911.

“If I see somebody get ran over by a vehicle, and four of his employees was out there witnessing it, I’m not going to ask him and see if needs medical attention,” he said. “My first response is going to be call 911 immediately.”

TV5 reached out to the owner of the dealership and was told he was in a meeting and would not be available today. But the company did release this statement on Facebook:

“Unfortunately, an accident happened on our dealership property Tuesday late afternoon when a tow truck driver went to remove a disabled vehicle from his flatbed truck. Our dealership wishes the driver a speedy recovery and is extremely glad that the driver wasn’t hurt worse when he was removing the vehicle from his truck.

Numerous attempts were made to have the driver agree to receive medical attention during the times in which he stood up, moved away from the vehicle, walked to his truck, and when he was inside his truck. We finally called his company’s office to have them come down and talk with him. Again, our thoughts have and will remain with the driver that was injured.”

One thing is clear, everyone is glad he didn’t lose his life.

“I could not have lived with myself if something like that would’ve happened,” LaCroix said.

A GoFundMe has been created to help with costs.

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