Private salvage crew to resume recovery effort of submerged tow truck, CHP says

Authorities say recovery efforts are expected to resume Friday for the tow truck that plunged into the Sacramento River following a crash on the Pioneer Bridge last month.

Family members of the suspected occupants of the tow truck – who have since been identified by family and friends as Shalvinesh and Roselyn Sharma – secured power of attorney for Justin’s Towing, according to a statement Wednesday from the California Highway Patrol’s South Sacramento office.

The married couple, co-owners of Justin’s Towing, have not been seen or heard from since the night of the incident, according to family members.

Those family members have arranged with their insurance company to contract a Bay Area salvage company, Global Diving and Salvage, to send a barge equipped to handle the recovery operation, CHP said. The barge should reach Sacramento by Thursday evening and recovery efforts could start as early as Friday, CHP said.

The tow truck crashed into the river about 8:30 p.m. March 26 after a collision with a big rig. Search and rescue operations by Sacramento and West Sacramento fire personnel were called off within two hours. The occupants of the tow truck were presumed dead upon impact due to the height of the Pioneer Bridge, which connects the two cities via the Capital City Freeway, and efforts transitioned to recovery rather than rescue.

Since then, several local agencies — aided by the Coast Guard and crews with Solano County Sheriff’s Office and Solano County Office of Emergency Services — have conducted operations to locate the tow truck under 30 feet of water. The process has stretched out over more than two weeks in an off-and-on fashion, as officials have reported several times that the Sacramento River’s current was running too fast for a safe recovery operation, which would require divers.

Meanwhile, the Sharmas’ loved ones await closure.

A memorial of candles, flowers and keepsakes has been growing at the end of the Mill Street Pier in West Sacramento since the evening after the collision. Dozens of people spent hours watching from that pier on the Saturday following the incident as a five-boat team searched the river for the tow truck. That day’s search was unsuccessful, but the truck was located two days later on April 1 using sonar technology, CHP said.

Wednesday’s news release was the first official statement by CHP that named Justin’s Towing as the suspected company with which the submerged truck is affiliated. CHP is the main investigating agency for the incident.

Friends and family who had gathered on the West Sacramento pier said the truck sent out its last GPS ping from near the middle of bridge just before the time of the crash.