Accident Recovery

First, before you call anyone

If anybody is hurt, call 911. We are a tow company, not a medical service, and the order matters.

Once that is handled: get everyone somewhere safe, away from live traffic. If the vehicles are driveable and it is safe to do so, move them out of the lane. If they are not, leave them and get yourself clear — a car is replaceable.

Then take photographs. Position of the vehicles, damage on both, the road, and anything relevant like skid marks or debris. Do it before anything is moved if you safely can. This is the single most useful thing you can do for your own claim, and once the vehicles are recovered it cannot be done again.

Why accident recovery is not just a tow

A broken-down car is intact and immobile. A wrecked car may have a wheel that will not turn, suspension pushed out of alignment, fluid on the road, panels ready to fall off, or an airbag deployment that makes the interior unsafe. Hooking it up the same way you would hook up a breakdown causes further damage — and that further damage becomes an argument with the insurer later.

We load accident vehicles on a flatbed wherever the damage calls for it, sweep and contain debris where we can, and take the vehicle off in one piece rather than in two.

The documentation your insurer will ask for

• An itemized bill. Required under Missouri law and required by every adjuster who has ever handled a claim.
• Where the vehicle went and when it got there.
• Photographs of the vehicle as recovered, which we take as a matter of course.
• Any recovery work beyond a straight tow — winching, debris clearance, scene time — listed separately rather than buried in a single number.

If police ordered the tow

When a vehicle is blocking traffic or the driver cannot arrange a tow, police can order one — and then the destination is not your choice. If police also place an evidence hold on the vehicle, you cannot collect it until they release it, and storage may continue accruing in the meantime even though the delay is not yours.

That is worth knowing about before it happens to you. We have written up how Missouri towing law actually works, including what a company must post, what it must let you retrieve, and where to complain if something is wrong.

When to call us for this

Why a local operator matters

We hold the St. Charles County towing license under County Chapter 608 — approved by the County Chief of Police and renewed every year — and our trucks dispatch from inside the county rather than across the Blanchette Bridge. On a call where minutes matter, both of those are practical facts rather than marketing.

We are based at 1890 1st Capitol Dr. #553 in St. Charles and we hold the St. Charles County towing license, which is approved by the County Chief of Police and renewed every year. That is not a formality — it means the county knows who we are, and it is a meaningful difference from an out-of-county operator who happened to answer the phone.

Related services

Accident Recovery calls often turn into Emergency Towing, Winch-Out Recovery, Commercial & Fleet and Long Distance Towing as well. One truck, one call, one bill. See everything we do, the towns we cover, or our highway response areas.