Car accidents, tow trucks, cops, and kickbacks

[matt819]

I was in a one-car accident the other day. Pretty dramatic, car totaled, uninjured. Hardly worth mentioning, apart from the fact that my favorite car is no more. Alas.

But something interesting came up that I thought others here might be able to comment on.

I had called AAA and the police. Seemed to make sense. The AAA wrecker was going to take some time, so the cop called another local wrecker who could come quicker. That made perfect sense, as I ended up partly in the road, and it just made sense to get things moving.

So, I called AAA to get the name and number of the tow service, but they told me that the cop on the scene had cancelled their call and arranged for another service. So I called the cop and he said that he didn't change the service but that he asked AAA to find a service thta could come more quickly. Hmmm. . .

IN any case, the tow truck guy said he would take it to his place and then tow it to my preferred body shop the next day. When I called to ask when it would be re-towed, the guy said, look, the vehicle is probably totaled, so why don't you call your appraiser and ask him to come to him, make that determination, and then he (the tow truck guy)_ could get paid, and if it wasn't deemed totaled, he could then tow it to my preferred shop. Again, that made some sense, but it got me to thinking.

AAA said that the dispatched company wasn't one of theirs. The cop says otherwise. So it looks like my insurance company pays for the tow and for storage until the appraiser can get there; my body shop wouldn't charge storage. That's not a ton of money, in any case, but I wonder whether the wrecker pays the cop some percentage for the tow/storage for canceling the AAA call and directing the business to him.

IN the end, I suppose I don't care. The end result is going to be the same. My car will be totaled, or not. If it is, I get my insurance payment. If it's not, it get's towed, and paid by the insurance company, to my body shop. How the payment to the wrecker gets allocated is irrelevant to me.

So, anyone here with experience in this sort of thing? Was this all kosher? Was the cop getting a kickback? Should I care?

[Lint Head]

1. I think you should care. It's your car. Your money and your insurance.

I'm bold enough to ask.

[Historic NY]

2. Its called playing the charging & recharging and recharging game.

You have the right to have it towed to any place you want.....when they tow it to their place charges are racking up towing and storage (even if its only there 1 minute) its a game. Now if they move it again its more charges....every day it sits is a storage charge day.

See where I'm going your wreck or total is a cash cow.

The cops can mandate a response time for the tow to arrive or order another to clear the roadway. Sometimes they have a relationship with a tow company. I've seen this crap for 30 yrs, from what were tow wars where the trucks speed to the scene to hook the car to out and out fights. I'd check to see if there are any towing laws in the location you have the wreck. In my town after years of this we have a rotating tow list, its suppose to stop or at least control the games. The law might have minimum and maximum charges.

Get your insurance company involved after all they are stuck with the bill. If the car is sitting get them to remove it ASAP. Some companies lets totals sit for weeks. My friends restoration shop had one sit for 2 months and he wanted it gone.

[Blue_Tires]

3. +1

They're running a hustle...

[matt819]

4. Thanks

Insurance company is on top of things, and the appraiser should be out within a few days. So, all in all, there's not a lot of money involved, so whatever the insurance company has to pay, it won't be out of the ordinary. But it bugs me that this is going on - if what's going on is what I think is going on - and I feel like reporting this to someone, whether the county attorney or the local newspaper. Although this didn't happen in my town, the towns are small, the state is small, and the memories are long, so screwing with the local police is probably not a good idea. I think I'll take my suspicions to the insurance company, but, as I said, I doubt they'll care - they see this every day, and unless it's obscenely egregious, they won't spend any time on these sorts of games. And, while the amounts are small, you have to wonder about the total impact of this sort of small-time fraud.