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Connecticut legislature overhauls towing laws to reduce 'predatory towing'
- themanmaran 1y agoGot curious about the "century old statute" and looked it up. Original text [1] > Section 1. Whenever any motor-vehicle is found abandoned upon any public highway… and said vehicle is not of a value exceeding one hundred dollars… said officer may cause such motor-vehicle to be removed > Section 2. If such motor-vehicle is not reclaimed within fifteen days after such removal, said officer shall sell the same at public auction… [1] https://books.google.com/books?id=gktNAQAAMAAJ&hl=en https://books.google.com/books?id=gktNAQAAMAAJ&hl=en
- doubled112 1y agoDo they adjust for inflation? I have a hard time getting a tire for $100 now, never mind a whole car.
- themanmaran 1y agoApparently the new number is $1500. But it's at the tow driver's discretion so they can estimate the value at $1,499.
- kulahan 1y agoI’m not sure this makes a huge difference if the goal is to get obvious pieces of junk off the highway? Does a $1600 car really matter that much more than even a $1500 car?
- jjk166 1y agoI think the point is that somebody can look at a brand new mint condition bugatti and say "that looks like it's worth less than $1500 to me" and then take it. It's not good to rely on people to be honest when it is in their financial best interest not to be.
- kulahan 1y agoBut the law doesn’t allow for that, obviously. It’s a nonsensical scenario. Maybe you could argue that a somewhat functional car might be taken on occasion, but it’s… still abandoned… Like, nobody is parking a useful vehicle on the side of the highway and abandoning it. This isn’t a scenario for abuse.
- jjk166 1y agoWhile it's a particularly brazen scenario meant to illustrate the concept, the point is the law does allow that. This doesn't simply apply to cars left on the side of the road, this is any car that's been towed for any reason. A car worth a heck of a lot more than $1500 can have an expired parking permit and no one available to pick it up (or even recognize it has been towed) within 15 days. You go on vacation or you're in the hospital and when you get back home you don't have a car anymore because you were parked only 13 feet away from a fire hydrant. And particularly for low income individuals, coming up with the money to pay the fine to get your vehicle out of impound within 15 days may be a legitimate financial burden, especially if without your vehicle you can no longer commute to work, or you lost your job for whatever reason led to the vehicle being impounded. It's an obvious scenario for abuse.
- doctorwho42 1y agoFor reference, I have a used car from 1998. Kind of a junker, but has a fun v6 in it (manual). But the point is, my city values it at $1500 and hasn't let that value go any lower for city vehicle tax purposes. So I'd imagine most cars ever if old junk piles are still worth $1500 to the state.
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- datadrivenangel 1y ago"Connecticut’s law allows tow companies to begin the process to sell vehicles after just 15 days." New law updates it to 30 days, except for vehicles worth under $1500 which is still 15 days, which may be an interesting opportunity to see how towers do time value of money decisions on so many $1499 cars.
- Gibbon1 1y agoThe law should just require the cops move the offending car to a different location and issue a fine. There shouldn't any private towing and impound at all.
- JumpCrisscross 1y ago> law should just require the cops move the offending car to a different location and issue a fine Who pays for all that parking? Security? Customer service?
- kelnos 1y agoUsually the people who want their cars back end up paying it.
- jjk166 1y agoPresumably the fine should cover it. The customer service costs are pretty constant regardless of impound duration, and you locate the impound in a place where a big empty lot with a fence is not expensive. If space needs to be made, the decision of when a car can be removed should be made by someone with no financial stake in the outcome.
- trollbridge 1y agoThere is vast amounts of free parking in America. A small amount extra for storing towed vehicles doesn't seem like that big of a deal.
- kotaKat 1y agoWhatever happened to the trope that your car got towed to "the police impound"? Tow it back to the police station lot.
- noleary 1y agoRelated context: How a Connecticut DMV Employee Made Thousands by Selling Towed Cars https://www.propublica.org/article/connecticut-dmv-employee-sells-towed-cars https://www.propublica.org/article/connecticut-dmv-employee-...
- lenerdenator 1y agoKansas City, MO recently did the same thing[0], accompanied by the indictment of a tow operator in two different counties for falsifying state forms to make it appear as if the vehicles they had wrongfully towed had been towed according to the law, then abandoned by the owners, allowing for the operator to claim them.[1] While these are nice developments, arguably, it's worse than bank robbery; in much of the country (Kansas City in particular), if you're without a car, you're screwed. No doctor appointments, no school, no grocery shopping, no social life, no job. Treat it as such. If you take someone's car without permission, you should face a significant fraction of a decade in prison, per vehicle. [0] https://www.kmbc.com/article/kansas-city-ordinance-cracks-down-predatory-towing/64647711 https://www.kmbc.com/article/kansas-city-ordinance-cracks-do... [1] https://www.kmbc.com/article/kansas-city-towing-company-unauthorized-tows-charged/64489094 https://www.kmbc.com/article/kansas-city-towing-company-unau...
- Cerium 1y agoTowing cars is the modern equivalent of taking horses and boots.
- gambiting 1y agoHow come towing vehicles is so common in the US, but not so much in the UK? I've literally never heard of anyone getting their vehicle towed away over here, but it sounds like in US you can get it towed for something as minor as not paying for parking(which just results in getting a fine here). Genuienly curious.
- imglorp 1y agoIt's common for people to ignore parking fines until they pile up. A city might "boot" the car to disable it, or they can tow it; either way extorting the owner to pay. Also, private parking areas contract with tow companies which incentivizes the tow companies to patrol proactively looking for violators and tow anyone without a permit or whatever. So a market was created.
- masfuerte 1y agoModerately recently (maybe ten years ago?) the police got the power to seize and destroy abandoned vehicles. This was intended to address the occasional obvious wreck you see at the roadside. Flat tyres, broken windows, full of rubbish, etc. But there have been a few cases of people going on holiday for a fortnight and returning to find that their old but taxed and insured car has been taken. And they have no legal redress! This does seem to be very rare though.
- tzs 1y agoHow do you handle it in the UK if you arrive home and find that someone has parked in your private driveway without permission which prevents you from parking your car on your property?
- healsdata 1y ago> After weeks of negotiations, lawmakers said they came to a compromise with the towing industry. Maybe just phrasing, but I hate the idea that we have to compromise our laws with private companies that only have to maximize shareholder value. If a law that treats the public fairly also puts tow companies out of business, so be it.
- p_ing 1y agoDo you seriously think a towing company is a publicly traded company?
- hydrogen7800 1y ago>[It] does all of this without undercutting the essential work that ethical and professional tow operators do each and every day for us Very clever words directed at tow operators here. If you aren't doing anything unethical, you should have no objections, right?
- FuriouslyAdrift 1y agoNothing compared to the old Chicago Lincoln Park Pirates... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln_Towing_Service https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln_Towing_Service
- Ostrogoth 1y agoTowing companies (and some apartment complexes) are essentially just organized crime. An apartment complex I lived in instituted a convoluted parking system utilizing colored mirror hang tags. Each unit received one exclusive parking spot (required to display a red tag only), and the remaining parking was first come first serve (but must display a yellow tag). There was never enough free parking, and tenants routinely parked overnight in fire lanes. My partner and I worked opposite shifts, so we usually only needed our designated spot, but sometimes were unable to swap tags due to schedules. Tow companies would roam the complex at night (let in through the gate by security), and haul off any vehicle without a red tag in designated spots, while ignoring vehicles in fire lanes and other no parking zones. The first time it happened, I thought my car had been stolen (why would I even think it was towed? I didn’t call to have someone removed from my own parking spot). I only found out after contacting apartment management for surveillance video. After the second time this happened (I’m a slow learner), I trudged over to the office, walking past several cars parked in the fire lane that had been there overnight. The manager stuck to their guns, stating that rules were rules, and I had broken them. I helpfully pointed out the vehicles still in the fire lane just outside the door, and asked if I should just leave my designated spot unoccupied and take up a free space (thereby using up two spaces) just to “follow the rules.” They had the gall to say it wasn’t fair to tow the fire lane violators, since there wasn’t enough parking for everyone. So it made more sense for them to endanger tenants lives. The ludicrousness of the situation made me suspicious that the apartment employees were getting kickbacks from the towing companies. It was the only scenario that made sense, other than mass idiocy.