Frank DeRego was driving a company pickup full of equipment for Jack Endo Electric Inc. last week when his tire suddenly blew out on the H-1 Freeway, forcing DeRego to pull over by the 12th-mile marker, within the area covered by the Freeway Service Patrol.

Scott Yette, driving a still-new service patrol tow truck, was looking for exactly that kind of trouble when he drove by half an hour later and pulled over to help DeRego, ready to do the patrol's 237th tire change since the program began June 16.

Yette's truck actually was the second service patrol truck to stop to offer assistance. DeRego had no spare and opted to wait for someone from his company rather than be towed to an off-road site, but he still appreciated the concern of the patrol.

"This is a good thing you guys are doing," DeRego told Yette.

The 14 patrollers have been busy since the federal- and state-sponsored program began a month and half ago. Six tow trucks roam the Moanalua and H-1 freeways between Kamehameha and Likelike highways from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, stopping to aid any stalled vehicles.

Rarely do the patrol drivers go a single 6 1/2-hour shift without stopping to investigate at least one problem.

In more than 1,300 vehicle assists so far, the most common by far are tows (21 percent), followed by tire changes (17 percent).

Usually Yette would have noticed the neon-pink card the last patroller attached to DeRego's truck to let patrollers know he had already been helped, but project manager Harvey Heaton said it's still common for patrollers to stop for those who don't need help or for false alarms.

The rules are that they stop for anyone on the side of the road.

Since July 1, they've additionally been stopping to find people parked on the shoulder using their cell phones.

"We recommend for their own safety they not do that," Heaton said. "The shoulder is an emergency parking lane."

Honolulu Police Department spokeswoman Michelle Yu said the law requires that the shoulder lane be used only for emergencies, and she urged people not to use it just to take a call.

"We do advise people to get out of traffic and pull into a safe and legal parking area," she said.

Still, Yette, who found the Freeway Service Patrol job through an ad in the paper after being laid off from a trucking position, said he doesn't mind stopping just to make sure people are OK.

As part of his duties, he stopped at a car accident site Thursday afternoon, waiting until a police officer arrived and calling Emergency Medical Services when a woman was worried about neck pain.

"I've helped some drivers, and they'll see me pulled over on the road and honk," Yette said. "I've even had people come up to me during lunch hour who've never even been helped, and they thank me for what I'm doing."

Patrol drivers hand out mail-in surveys to everyone they help, but only about 3 percent have responded. Out of the 34 responses, no one has given a bad review, with 33 rating their service "excellent" and one rating it "good."

"Moe was extremely helpful and friendly," said one comment. "This could have been a very distressful situation without Moe's assistance, and I truly appreciate his help as well as the Freeway Service Patrol."

Heaton said the patrolmen were selected based on their communication and people skills as well as their driving record and experience. During their 2 1/2-week training, they were taught stress management in addition to the towing, auto repair, first aid and highway safety training.

"They're just ecstatic to see us when we come up," Yette said. "They're not in their comfort zones."

The most dangerous accident Yette has encountered in his 35 days on the job was a few weeks ago by the Ka'amilo overpass while it was drizzling. A man spun around in his pickup truck and was facing traffic just as Yette was driving up.

Yette stopped, put up his hazard board — arrow alert lights that pop up from the roof of the truck — directed traffic to one side and notified police. Together, they were able to halt traffic for five minutes and turn the man around.

"The whole thing took about 10 to 12 minutes," Yette said.

Driving for 6 1/2 hours every weekday along the freeway has helped Yette notice traffic and accident patterns on the road.

"On the downslope, that's where a lot of accidents happen," he said, pointing to the lower end of a decline on H-1. Yette watches east-bound and west-bound traffic when he's patrolling and radios other patrol trucks if he sees a car pulled over on the other side. The program's home base tracks all its drivers through a GPS and records their assists and activities in a daily log compiled via radio and personal digital devices.

Heaton said people have told him they appreciate the service because they see their tax dollars at work in front of their eyes.

"It's tangible," he said. "Their taxes pay for everything — lights, roads — but this is someone personally helping them in a time of crisis."

The two-year cost for the program is about $3.9 million, with $3.51 million coming from the federal government and the remaining $390,000 from the state.

Yette, who would lose his job if the two-year pilot program (with the option of a three- or four-year extension) is not expanded into a permanent service, said he hopes it continues for more reasons than just his own.

"Some people think it's a waste of money, but if your grandmother, mother or sister was on the side of the road and I helped them, you'd think twice about calling it a waste," he said.