A Question for Our LEO members...

[Oklahomabassin]

Well this went way off topic.

Could you imagine if licensed tow companies were allowed to impound cars with tags 3 months or more out of date? The impound fee and up to date registration would be required to get vehicle out of impound.

 

[TedKennedy]

Well this went way off topic.

Could you imagine if licensed tow companies were allowed to impound cars with tags 3 months or more out of date? The impound fee and up to date registration would be required to get vehicle out of impound.

I can see tow companies buying hookers and blow for politicians now. Legislation coming soon, lol.

 

[jakeman]

Well this went way off topic.

Could you imagine if licensed tow companies were allowed to impound cars with tags 3 months or more out of date? The impound fee and up to date registration would be required to get vehicle out of impound.

Excellent idea, with obvious limitations.

If pulled over for a moving violation and found to not have insurance, the vehicle should be towed and the folks driving should be safely transported to a safe area.

 

[Aries]

So Bob should be required to carry insurance that covers MY vehicle. (except if it's really expensive, in which case personal responsibility comes in to play)

And we need to force those 25% of drivers with no insurance to buy insurance.

Seems like we could skip a bunch of red tape by insuring our own stuff to whatever limit we purchase, but I get it. Once you get comfortable forcing folks to do stuff, it's a hard habit to break.

Would you be comfortable with legislation requiring gun owners to carry liability should someone get injured with their firearm?

Yes, if Bob damages your vehicle, Bob should be required to be responsible for the damages. Whether he does it with insurance or is self insured is up to Bob.

No, we should not force them to buy insurance, unless they want to drive a car. If they drive without insurance, then they are forcing ME to accept the risk for their potential mistakes.

There is no second amendment for the right to drive a car, but I would be comfortable with the concept that if you do something stupid and shoot me, you should pay my medical bills. There's little risk of that so I'd probably have to sue you, but there is a very real risk of an accident every time someone takes a car on the road. Probably why lawmakers have anticipated ahead of time that you may cause damage to someone else's property that you don't have the resources to pay for, so we'll just mandate ahead of time that you buy insurance to protect innocent people from you.

Are you generally opposed to holding people responsible for their actions?

 

[Oklahomabassin]

Excellent idea, with obvious limitations.

If pulled over for a moving violation and found to not have insurance, the vehicle should be towed and the folks driving should be safely transported to a safe area.

Licensed tow operators should be able to confirm out of date registration and hook em up and haul em in.

 

[jakeman]

Licensed tow operators should be able to confirm out of date registration and hook em up and haul em in.

Agree, but with certain limitations. One example I can think of would be them pulling thru an alley, or anywhere else seeing a vehicle parked in the back and snatching it, when the vehicle isn't being driven or is currently not capable of being driven. There are more.

I will tell you this, when I was in LE, I never wrote anyone for an expired tag that wasn't 5-6 months over. Why might you ask?

Because when I was in college someone stole the sticker off my motorcycle tag. I got pulled over by campus police, and they were about to tow my bike. I begged and pleaded to no avail, and finally told him and his back that I wanted to speak to a super or I was gonna raise hell all the way to the Board of Regents. When the super got there, he verified that my tag was in fact current, the other jerk never even checked, so the tow truck got to leave empty, but the original officer wrote me a citation for "failure to display". Not "expired" or failure to pay taxes due the state, but "failure to display". The boss let him do it too. I vowed to not be that guy when I received my commission. Jag offs.

 

[THAT Gurl]

People like Bob are why I carry my own insurance. And drive a beater truck.

@Oklahomabassin that's not a half bad idea! Lol

 

[Fyrtwuck]

Licensed tow operators should be able to confirm out of date registration and hook em up and haul em in.

You just reminded me of a case I was involved in back in the early nineties. The owner of a tractor trailer hired a driver to haul loads across the country. It was his only truck and he was trying to start a trucking company. The driver was long overdue and the owner had tried multiple times to contact his driver with no response. I took the report and we treated it as a stolen vehicle report.

About three months later I got a call from a Florida Sheriffs Deputy who said that they had recovered the truck. As it happened the truck was found at a wrecker impound yard during an inspection where several other vehicles that had been reported stolen but not reported as recovered had been found.

It seems that the owner of the wrecker company was sending his drivers to “patrol” the interstate for cars that were broken down or appeared abandoned and unattended. They’d tow them back to the yard and IF the owners came after their vehicles they’d charge impound, mileage and storage fees before they got their cars back.

I don’t know how they were supposed to know where their cars were, but that’s what the deputy told me. The driver of the truck in my case supposedly had a dispute with the owner of the truck, parked it and went to another company who was hiring in Florida. The OK County ADA told me to file charges for embezzlement by Bailee and issued a warrant for his arrest. A local driver was contracted and flown to Florida to pick up and return the truck. I never heard anything further in the case.

 

[HFS]

Licensed tow operators should be able to confirm out of date registration and hook em up and haul em in.

I wouldn't be opposed to this.
As long as there was a very stiff penalty, with licensed tow operators losing their license and sharing a jail cell with Big Dova Bubba, if they wrongly hook up a vehicle that is in fact displaying valid registration.

 

[jakeman]

You just reminded me of a case I was involved in back in the early nineties. The owner of a tractor trailer hired a driver to haul loads across the country. It was his only truck and he was trying to start a trucking company. The driver was long overdue and the owner had tried multiple times to contact his driver with no response. I took the report and we treated it as a stolen vehicle report.

About three months later I got a call from a Florida Sheriffs Deputy who said that they had recovered the truck. As it happened the truck was found at a wrecker impound yard during an inspection where several other vehicles that had been reported stolen but not reported as recovered had been found.

It seems that the owner of the wrecker company was sending his drivers to “patrol” the interstate for cars that were broken down or appeared abandoned and unattended. They’d tow them back to the yard and IF the owners came after their vehicles they’d charge impound, mileage and storage fees before they got their cars back.

I don’t know how they were supposed to know where their cars were, but that’s what the deputy told me. The driver of the truck in my case supposedly had a dispute with the owner of the truck, parked it and went to another company who was hiring in Florida. The OK County ADA told me to file charges for embezzlement by Bailee and issued a warrant for his arrest. A local driver was contracted and flown to Florida to pick up and return the truck. I never heard anything further in the case.

I parked in a bank parking lot in Dallas (actually Arlington) one time to conduct a little business at the bank. I beat closing time by about 5 minutes. Transacted my business, they unlocked the door and let me out. I'd driven from Muskogee that day and hadn't eaten, so I walked across the parking lot to the restaurant next door. Literally walked over about a 3' grass median between the curbs. It was on an access road, and I couldn't go left into the restaurant parking lot cause it was a one way street, and it was only about 20 yards to the front door, so I just walked across the grass. Ordered an overpriced burger and a beer, ate, paid my tab and walked outside to a missing company car. I was pretty sure it had been stolen, until the little hostess told me she saw a tow truck hook up to it.

Took me about 3 hours to locate the right tow yard. $70 cab ride over to Ft Worth, and then they wouldn't let me have it because I couldn't prove ownership. Cost me $250 for the tow and a $70 cab ride, and I had to grease the little gal working the window with another $20 to get her to let me have it. Having the key convinced her it was mine, but I think the $20 is what sealed the deal. Bank wouldn't help. Shouldn't have left it there, but those dudes must have started cruising posted parking lots about 3 minutes after business hours. There was a line of tow trucks waiting to get into that yard when my cab pulled up and it was only about 7 pm. Mine was on a flatbed, and they had another one behind mine on the ground. Business was booming and they were dealing in volume.

Probably served me right for making the bank employees stay after closing. Fairly expensive lesson for me at the time.