Ok car shop folks - here's a question: If a towing company removes your disabled vehicle from the scene of an accident, do they have a legal right to prevent you from accessing the contents of your vehicle? My nephew was in a crash and went to get some odds and ends from his truck - mostly tools - and the guy running the lot said he could not. Who releases the vehicle contents? Cops? Insurance? Vehicle is paid off, driver was not at fault.

Should contact the police right away to find out what’s up.

Had a few wrecks years ago and never had a problem retrieving items from the wreck.

depending on what the officer says, you may or may not be able to remove contents at the scene. once it's in the impound yard though, you need permission from the impound yard to remove anything. to the best of my knowledge, they don't have to let you atr the vehicle. and again....if the police say no...then they cannot let anyone access it. 

 when I used to work for a company that did township towing, we only ever let the registered owner of the vehicle have access/ 

He is the registered owner, so I don't know why the yard would get shi**y. Can you steal your own possessions from your own vehicle? If he "intrudes" onto the lot during working hours, what are the cops going to do? He has things like house keys and garage door openers in there.

Yeah, I don't really understand this, it's his vehicle and unless the cops have some order on it they shouldn't deny access. I mean he could have it towed out of there if he wanted. 

The do have a legal right to prevent access to where the car ia being stored, but why would they to the owner?

1 hour ago, Handyman said:

driver was not at fault.

 

27 minutes ago, JackDaWack said:

it's his vehicle and unless the cops have some order on it they shouldn't deny access.

Any chance, even if it's not his fault the cops might be doing an investigation on something else regarding him?

I don't think so. 29 year old guy sitting at a traffic light, broad daylight, middle of the day, rear ended and probably totalled. No injuries. Cops said pick up the accident report in a few days.

1 hour ago, Handyman said:

He is the registered owner, so I don't know why the yard would get shi**y. Can you steal your own possessions from your own vehicle? If he "intrudes" onto the lot during working hours, what are the cops going to do? He has things like house keys and garage door openers in there.

they can arrest him if he was told to leave. 

 

 where'd the crash happen? who towed it?

2 minutes ago, 1LtCAP said:

there'd the crash happen? who towed it?

Somewhere up in Essex County. Tow guy was whoever was on contract to the town and called by the cops. Is it somewhat safe to assume the town would hire a shady ahole towing company?

Way back when in Newark...if your car got towed by any reason, you'd better beat the tow truck to the yard. If you didn't, by the time you got there your battery would be gone, your radio would be gone, anything you had in the car would be gone.They would forking bust your windows to get to your stuff. And if you asked what's up,  the reply was "are you accusing us of stealing?"

Nothing shady about those guys and the non bid contract the town had with them. Nothing whatsoever. I wish I hadn't forgotten their name.

Id have a tow truck tow it elsewhere out of principle.
Definitely have him call the cops and complain and see what they say. I've never heard of them not allowing it unless they pulled some shit like WP22 said and need to cover their asses..

8 hours ago, Handyman said:

Somewhere up in Essex County. Tow guy was whoever was on contract to the town and called by the cops. Is it somewhat safe to assume the town would hire a shady ahole towing company?

that's always a possibility. when i was doing this, i worked for a guy in gloucester twp. we were on the rosters for the twp, and for the state pd. state pd, they called the next in line on each call. twp we were on 2 week rotations. there were 6 or 8 of us (if i recall correctly) on twp rotation. at least 2 were shadow? companies owned by 2 others on the roster. one of those had a metric boatload of complaints, although i'd never personally had any troubles or seen any with them. but it's always possible. once you've got the contract, you're in like flint till it comes up for bidding again. unless you go and get all racial on someone...then you're ass is done. i saw that happen too.

 

 was the vehicle not driveable?

 

 i guess after all that....it's possible, but they'll try not to, 'cause they don't want the complaints.

Yep, vehicle not driveable. It's like 10 years old and all pushed in so I think its history.

Here's another question: if the cops call Joe Blow Towing, does your car have to go to his impound lot? Can you request/demand that your car be taken to another location?

I never would have realized that a tower could potentially hold all your stuff hostage. Makes me want to keep my car a little cleaner. What happens if your effed up and go to the hospital and you have a briefcase/computer in the car? There could be eyeglasses, medications, anything, in there.

Every day I lose a little more faith in humanity. 

 

YOU CAN request. sometimes they can/will. i think that depends on the contract with the twp.

 

 wait'll ya get the bill. our avg. bill was around 400 bucks.

18 hours ago, Handyman said:

Yep, vehicle not driveable. It's like 10 years old and all pushed in so I think its history.

Here's another question: if the cops call Joe Blow Towing, does your car have to go to his impound lot? Can you request/demand that your car be taken to another location?

I never would have realized that a tower could potentially hold all your stuff hostage. Makes me want to keep my car a little cleaner. What happens if your effed up and go to the hospital and you have a briefcase/computer in the car? There could be eyeglasses, medications, anything, in there.

Every day I lose a little more faith in humanity. 

 

If my car was towed I would damn sure make certain it was being dropped off at my mechanic or body shop. The only time I would allow it to be brought to a tow yard is if it were being impounded. 

Primary reason is I'm not paying twice to have it moved.

some depts do not allow a vehicle to be towed to a place of your laocation.

 

 a customers employee just recently totaled one of their vans in laurel springs. customer wanted it towed to the body shop. pd wouldn't allow it. it was towed to the towing companies impound yard.

 other pd's do. when i totaled my gt back around2001'ish, that was in cherry hill. they let me have them drop it off at the shop.

 

 you can't tell the tow driver what his job is, regardless of what you think you can or can't do.

Sounds like a scummy business run by scummy people taking advantage of other people in bad circumstances. 

It's sort of like Congress, only on wheels.

23 hours ago, 1LtCAP said:

some depts do not allow a vehicle to be towed to a place of your laocation.

 

 a customers employee just recently totaled one of their vans in laurel springs. customer wanted it towed to the body shop. pd wouldn't allow it. it was towed to the towing companies impound yard.

 other pd's do. when i totaled my gt back around2001'ish, that was in cherry hill. they let me have them drop it off at the shop.

 

 you can't tell the tow driver what his job is, regardless of what you think you can or can't do.

I'm not sure what legal authority they have to "seize" your vehicle. I understand they can force you to use their towing company to quickly remove the vehicle from the street, but it's been my understanding and also experience you always have a right to say where it goes.. 

In fact with most accidents/break downs Ive been in or helped with, we always called our own tow trucks.

Way back when in Newark...if your car got towed by any reason, you'd better beat the tow truck to the yard. If you didn't, by the time you got there your battery would be gone, your radio would be gone, anything you had in the car would be gone.They would forking bust your windows to get to your stuff. And if you asked what's up,  the reply was "are you accusing us of stealing?"

Nothing shady about those guys and the non bid contract the town had with them. Nothing whatsoever. I wish I hadn't forgotten their name.

 

I'm pretty sure Al Young had the towing contract for Newark and his father in law before that. They would not do something like that. What their sweetheart no bid deal with the city was if your car got towed in Newark it went to their yard in Manalapan and the fees racked up quickly.

 

 

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Most towns have contracts. It usually has to be towed to yard of tow company first. It is always suggested to get it out of there as soon as possible. Also even if insurance totals out the vehicle it is often worth it to buy it back from the insurance company for parts alone.

 

 

My wife's 2001 GMC Jimmy was totaled by insurance in 2010. Insurance gave us $7,500 and I bought the car back for $400. I fixed it for $1,000 and gave it to my parents as a third vehicle. They also had a 2001 Jimmy. My wife's car only had 30,000 miles on it. 3 years ago my mother gets hit in the same spot and frame cracked. Put the vehicle in the yard. Last year their tranny went on their Jimmy. Wife's Jimmy still had less than 50k miles. I swapped the transmissions. Worked great. Still keep the vehicle for parts. Figure engine will go next and I can swap that too.

 

 

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This was about 26/27 years ago. The towing yard was on Wilson Av in Newark by all those junkyards. I drove a friend of mine there to get his car.

This was about 26/27 years ago. The towing yard was on Wilson Av in Newark by all those junkyards. I drove a friend of mine there to get his car.

 

Maybe they lost it by then. From I believe the 1960s- to at least1992 they had it. The old man died in I believe 1990.  I keep forgetting that 1992 isn't 10 years ago it is going on 30 years. Damn.

 

 

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u cant access ur stuff bc the tow yard wants to pick out the goodies BEFORE you get to it, then claim they are NOT responsible for lost items.  

On 10/2/2018 at 1:10 PM, Handyman said:

Sounds like a scummy business run by scummy people taking advantage of other people in bad circumstances. 

It's sort of like Congress, only on wheels.

A lot of 'em are - particularly in the cities.

 

On ‎10‎/‎2‎/‎2018 at 1:10 PM, Handyman said:

Sounds like a scummy business run by scummy people taking advantage of other people in bad circumstances. 

It's sort of like Congress, only on wheels.

it's not really. it costs a lot of money to be on the rosters, and many times only the companies on the roster can tow a vehicle from the scene of a crash. 

13 hours ago, capt14k said:

Most towns have contracts. It usually has to be towed to yard of tow company first. It is always suggested to get it out of there as soon as possible. Also even if insurance totals out the vehicle it is often worth it to buy it back from the insurance company for parts alone.


My wife's 2011 GMC Jimmy was totaled by insurance in 2010. Insurance gave us $7,500 and I bought the car back for $400. I fixed it for $1,000 and gave it to my parents as a third vehicle. They also had a 2001 Jimmy. My wife's car only had 30,000 miles on it. 3 years ago my mother gets hit in the same spot and frame cracked. Put the vehicle in the yard. Last year their tranny went on their Jimmy. Wife's Jimmy still had less than 50k miles. I swapped the transmissions. Worked great. Still keep the vehicle for parts. Figure engine will go next and I can swap that too.


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she had 30k miles on a vehicle that was totaled the year before it was titled as?

she had 30k miles on a vehicle that was totaled the year before it was titled as?

Meant to write 2001. Same year as my parents car.

 

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8 hours ago, 1LtCAP said:

it's not really. it costs a lot of money to be on the rosters, and many times only the companies on the roster can tow a vehicle from the scene of a crash. 

Money to who? The towing company pays the town to be on the roster? How is that not a kickback scheme...

That is 100% bull S&^%. I was allowed to remove items from my personal car and once from my brothers car without any problems. These guys just seems like scum bags.

1 hour ago, Handyman said:

Money to who? The towing company pays the town to be on the roster? How is that not a kickback scheme...

they bid. just like construction companies bid for road repairs, building things for twps etc.......

 

 like i said....when i was driving for a tow company, there were 8 companies on glo. twp's roster. we each did 1 or 2 week stints