Budget Cuts Drive Rangers Off Road

TAMPA - After helping nearly 2 million drivers since 2000, the Road Rangers assistance program is being pushed to the curb as lawmakers look to trim the state budget.

For stranded motorists, that could mean longer waits for help on the interstates. For drivers stuck in backups caused by accidents, it could mean more time before the road is cleared.

"It's going to be a big impact on everybody," said Larry Jones, a Road Ranger supervisor in the Tampa Bay area.

Lawmakers will meet this week or next to iron out differences in their spending bills, but it's unlikely that they will reinstate the $20.7 million program that employs 150 rangers across the state.

"Not to minimize the program, but it's a minor blip on the screen," said state Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey. "There are much bigger issues at hand."

Rich Wheeler, who runs the Road Rangers program on Florida's Turnpike, said he didn't know about the cuts until both houses approved their spending plans.

"It looks extremely bleak," he said. "It's a shame we didn't have more reaction time."

In Pinellas and Hillsborough counties, the rangers handled about 35,000 calls last year on Interstate 75, I-275, I-4 and Veterans Expressway.

They are dispatched to accident scenes or roam the highways in distinctive pickups and wreckers rigged with lights and message boards looking for drivers who need help.

They fix flats, offer a gallon of gas to get a driver to the nearest service station, push wrecked cars onto the shoulder and divert traffic around crashes to protect motorists. They also pick up junk that falls off the back of trucks.

"We've seen everything - couches, washing machines, dryers, ladders, shredded tires from trucks," said Jones, who supervises 29 rangers in Hillsborough and Pinellas.

"We do a lot of calls for cars blocking lanes," he said. "We try to get them out of the road before somebody gets hurt."

Although free to motorists, the program isn't free to the Bay area's transportation district, which last year paid $2.2 million to hire the 24-hour service. Fourteen trucks run during the week, and nine on weekends.

Jones estimated the rangers handle about 3,300 calls monthly.

"This is going to be a big loss to the public," he said.

Transportation officials said the program is important but difficult to justify in a year of belt-tightening. The Department of Transportation, which funds the rangers, faces a $600 million budget cut.

About 150 rangers statewide would lose their jobs. The drivers are not state employees, but private operators hired under multiyear contracts to provide the service.

"We believe it's a worthwhile program but we also understand this is a very difficult budget year and the Legislature has had to make some tough decisions," Department of Transportation spokesman Dick Kane said.

To end the Road Rangers program in Pinellas and Hillsborough, the state would break a four-year contract with Anchor Towing of Pembroke Pines. That contract is set to expire in November 2009.

One local ranger program might survive, however.

The Selmon Crosstown Expressway will keep its ranger service because tolls collected on the highway, not the state, fund the program.

The authority that oversees the 15-mile highway hired a service last year for about $130,000. A ranger truck patrols 6:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. five days a week.

"We love him. He answers everything we call him for and everything his supervisor calls for," said Sue Chrzan, spokeswoman for the Tampa-Hillsborough County Expressway Authority. "It's a good service for our customers."

Reporter Rich Shopes can be reached

at rshopes@tampatrib.com or