Samaritan Saturday: Carbondale residents offer free road assistance amidst winter storm 

By Keaton Yates, Staff Reporter

Eight different Carbondale residents came together to create a free off-road service to pull cars out of the snow left by the winter storm.

Thaddeus Przybylowski posted on the WTF? Carbondale Facebook page announcing the service. 

The group consisted of Przybylowski, Dominic Bianchi, Dylan Partyka, Elijah Melloy, Randy Hudspeth, Sean Freitag, Sylvia Okal and Tim Otter. 

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“We’re all off-road buddies,” Przybylowski said. He and his friends get together and caravan, or travel, often, he said on Facebook.

Przybylowski said he works at Autozone as a hub driver, fitting for the miniature road service. 

After hearing about community members having to call tow trucks to get out of icy parking lots, Przybylowski and his friends decided the community might appreciate a free service, he said. 

While Przybylowski said he meant to only offer it for one night, he went out to some calls the day after. 

“The night of, we were out past midnight,” he said. 

Because of donations, the off-road friends were able to keep gas in their vehicles.

Prybylowski said a day later on WTF? Carbondale because of the, now lifted, tow ban in Carbondale they had to stop to avoid fines.

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Illinois State Police issued a tow ban on District 13 due to dangerous weather conditions and lifted it Feb. 16.

(See more: ISP lifts tow ban in southern Illinois)

The roads are better than what they were, but Prybylowski advised those without trucks stay home until roads were plowed.

“Thanks so much for the support, I hope that we were able to make some people’s days,” he said.

Staff reporter Keaton Yates can be reached by email at [email protected] or on Twitter @keatsians.

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