Danny Horton
Danny was born in Kingsport TN in 1951. He began working with Henry’s wrecker service in 1970 and is employed today by Atlantic Emergency Solutions having worked for various companies in the industry over the last 47 years. His son Dallas owns and operates Horton’s Wrecker Service in Virginia.
Danny has held several positions in State and National associations such as TRAA, VATRO, and TRPM throughout the years. He was the Vice Chairman of the TRAA Education Foundation & Committee and a longtime proponent of safety for the industry. In addition he was an original Trustee of the association. As the Vice Chair of the original Committee Danny was one of the key people who participated in writing and guiding the TRAA National Driver Certification Program Level 1 which would become the first federal accredited training & certification program for tow operators in the nation. He designed and recreated the Driver Certification logo still in use today and in the first year of its inception certified and tested over 400 operators nationwide.
In 1988 working closely with his good friend Dave Jones Danny helped launch the TOWED program which helped to eliminate impaired drivers on holiday nights and periods. This program became nationally recognized and was recognized by the President and the White House.
Danny was an accident reconstruction specialist and in 2000 helped organize and co-ordinate what was one of the first inter agency demonstrations at WREX 2000 performing tractor trailer recoveries. This style of cross training is widely used today across the country.
Danny was an intricate part of the Virginia Towing and Recovery Operators early on working closely with Betty Cornwell and became one of the first instructors for Ross Kinman programs the original training and certification classes that traveled across the country educating operators on safety and best practices.
In 2003 Danny was recognized by VATRO and received the Henry Heath memorial Award for his contributions to the association. He has been involved in his community as a coach and sponsor of several youth programs and teams.