Wellington County council has now produced a draft bylaw that is designed to protect local tow truck operators and the motoring public from “pirates” from outside Wellington.
Police Services Board chairman Lynda White told council on Feb. 24 that the draft bylaw is being sent to local municipalities, and she urged the mayors to ensure councils deal with it as soon as possible.
OPP Inspector Scott Smith provided the board with the reasons for the proposed bylaw.
He said tow truck operators who are from outside the county are monitoring police calls, and, uninvited, as soliciting towing work from victims of accidents and stalled cars when they hear that the OPP is calling for a local tow truck. Smith said the pirates often offer “cut rate prices” but added, “The driver accepting the offer is at the mercy of the operator for sudden increases in fees and location where the vehicle is towed.”
Smith added that if the driver at the scene accepts the out-of-county tow truck driver’s offer, police can do nothing about it, and it is often too late to cancel a legitimate call to a local, taxpaying towing business. He said the only operators following the piracy practice come from outside the county.
Smith explained there used to be a problem on Ontario highways, so the province passed legislation that defines what a tow truck driver can and cannot do on a King’s Highway as it relates to accident scenes, and what the limits are.
He said pirates’ practices to date are having a detrimental effect on the financial stability of the tow operators in the county. He noted that some jurisdictions have licensing bylaws, but that is not recommended either by police or the towing operators in Wellington County.
“Control of the situation is required to ensure safe and secure accident scenes; to protect motorists from unprincipled tow operators; and to honour the verbal contract between the motorist and the dispatched tow service,” Smith said in his report.
The draft bylaw was vetted by the county’s lawyer and found to be acceptable, and it is also consistent with the provincial legislation.
Smith added that the OPP also consulted with the Wellington County Tow Group, and it has advised it supports the draft bylaw.
The bylaw has several prohibitions. They include:
– no person shall solicit or convey an offer of services of a tow truck while that person is within 200 metres of the scene of an accident or apparent accident or a vehicle involved in any accident on any highway;
– no person shall park or stop or stand a tow truck on any highway within 200 metres of an accident or apparent accident or a vehicle involved in an accident;
– those sections do not apply to a person at the scene at the direction of a police officer, a firefighter, a person engaged in the carrying out of the provisions of the Highway Traffic Act or engaged in highway maintenance, or a person involved in the accident;
– any person operating a tow truck or any other vehicle parked, stopped, or standing within 200 metres of the scene of an accident or a vehicle involved in an accident must move their tow truck or motor vehicle to a location 200 metres away or to any other location directed by the officer.
The fines for breaking the bylaw could get costly.
Anyone who breaks the bylaw, on conviction, is liable to a penalty of not more than $5,000. Every person who is convicted a second time within 24 months is liable to a minimum penalty of $2,000. Under those same conditions, a third offence carries a fine of $5,000.
Anyone who fails to move a vehicle or tow truck upon being directed to do so by an officer is deemed to be obstructing that officer and subject to a penalty not to exceed $5,000 upon conviction.
Any person who hinders or obstructs a person exercising a power or performing a duty under the bylaw is guilty of an offence and, on conviction, is liable to a fine not to exceed $5,000.
The bylaw also gives police, municipal enforcement officers or an officer appointed for carrying out the provisions of the bylaw the power to seize an impound a tow truck or other motor vehicle that is parked, stopped, or standing in contravention of the bylaw.
Finally, the draft bylaw states that if the courts should strike down any one of the provisions in the bylaw, all the other provisions would remain in force.
