On Sat, 04 Apr 2009 04:29:15 +0200, ChattyCathy
> wrote:
>Dan Abel wrote:
>
>>
>> They very seldom tow cars for illegal parking here. It has to be
>> blocking something important, like a fire lane, traffic or the mayor's
>> parking spot.
>
>Same here - or parking spaces that are marked as 'no parking zones'
>between certain hours (think it's because of peak traffic times). If a
>car is found in one of those spaces when it's not supposed to be
>there - they tow it away, no warning issued.
>
>>
>> Around here, the police department orders the towing, but private
>> companies, under a contract, do the actual towing.
Yep. It's the tow truck Mafia.
>
>I still see tow trucks 'round here that are owned by our local Traffic
>Department. I guess that's why we pay such a big fine to get a car
>back - somebody has to pay for fuel and maintenance of those trucks.
We pay a lot of profit too.
>
>BTW, our Police Force as such is separate from the various municipal
>Traffic Departments - and they in turn, have specific juristdictions in
>which they operate. i.e. The Police Officers are not the guys that pull
>you over just to check your license and registration and/or give you a
>speeding fine - that's the local Traffic Officers' job, if ya get my
>drift. <g>.
Small town mentality.
>
>We do of course have plenty of private tow truck companies. We jokingly
>refer to them as 'vultures' because they (literally) lurk around all
>over the place just waiting for somebody to have an accident or a
>breakdown and they also charge a fortune to tow your car anywhere.
>
Around here, they are more like sharks.
>
>> If you have no valid driver's license or no insurance, it gets
>> towed the first time, no warning. Since we have a number of illegal
>> aliens here, and they *cannot* get a driver's license or insurance,
>> they drive very cheap cars, because they know once their car gets
>> towed, they won't ever get it back.
>>
>When you say 'insurance' do you mean insurance cover for accident
>damage, theft, personal injury etc.?
http://www.insure.com/articles/carin...ge-levels.html
--
I love cooking with wine.
Sometimes I even put it in the food.