Tow truck driver gets caught in $AFEclear's muddled details
I wonder if Mayor White and David Saperstein can admit that $AFEclear wasn't the most well-thought-out idea in city history. The fact that some major changes have been proposed a couple of weeks after the forced towing program was implemented would be one sign. Another sign might be that police and wrecker drivers are unclear on the technicalities of who can respond to a $AFEclear call and who can't, as evidenced by this KHOU-11 story:
Yun Gim was in his truck after midnight Wednesday when he heard the accident, then got the call.
He says Houston Police Officer wanted a nearby wrecker to clear a dangerous situation from the Katy Freeway.
Gim says that when he arrived, he told the officer that he was not a Safe Clear driver. The officer said that didn't matter and told him to hook up the car.
He towed the car to a lot on the city's northwest side.
A day later, he says another HPD officer called him back to the lot.
"I'm upset to get the ticket, so I wanna find out what's the deal for the ticket," Gim says.
He was stunned by the illegal tow ticket he received, that could cost him as much as $700. He also had a letter from the city that said any wrecker can tow off a freeway if an officer says it's an emergency.
"Whether he just got hung in a situation and did something that he shouldn't have, I really don't know," says Ken Ulmer of A-1/Safetow Towing.
Ulmer owns the rights to the stretch of freeway where the accident happened. He says his driver told him a different story.
"He was there, and that it was not an emergency situation," says Ulmer of his driver.
Yun Gim says he will fight what he sees as an unfair and aggressive maneuver; the latest skirmish in what could be a long battle.
It comes down to the question of whether or not the officer called the scene an emergency. An HPD spokesperson said the department is looking into it, but there was not an answer Monday afternoon.
Let's see...that $700 can pay for 14 $AFEclear tows!
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 01/18/05 08:26 AM | Print | Comments (7)
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