Morning Journal/Patti Schaeffer

Brent Rose from Baker’s Towing is a familiar face at many of the county’s accident scenes, and he was at a crash involving a large fallen evergreen tree blocking both lanes of state Route 45 near Roller Coaster Road in Lisbon Thursday night. The difference was Rose was the other element of the crash. Ironically, Rose had just picked up a Subaru CrossTrek that had hit a downed tree in the road in West Point and was headed back toward Lisbon when he hit the large pine blocking Route 45. Rose said all he could see was white snow flying through the air and then he struck the tree as it hit the roadway. The wrecker went off the side of the roadway, but he maintained control, coming to a stop and quickly got out to warn oncoming cars of the danger. Lisbon firefighters quickly responded, even though they had four or five other calls going on at the same time, blocked the roadway and began tree removal. A short time later, ODOT plow driver Cameron Kovic came across the scene on his way south with a load of salt. He finished clearing the roadway, pushing the large tree and debris off to the side. Rose was not hurt, but there were a some scratches and surface damage to his new flatbed that he’ll be buffing out before long. Looking over the scene, Rose remarked that he was glad it was him that was first one to encounter the tree, because it could have done serious damage to a car. — Patti Schaeffer