Towing law and procedure

[rujaneez]

Towing law (answered) and street cleaning

THank you!What is the name of your state? IL
I accidentally parked my car in the rush hour tow-zone that starts from 4 to 6 pm. The city of Chicago just recently put the sign up due the the highway construction in the area. The thing is that when I was about to park the car, it was generally a couple minutes before or around 4 already. I got out of the car and walked across the street to the store ( that was like literally another 2 minutes. I got what I needed and waited in line, then the sales rep started talking about how the city towing the cars out on the street so quickly and suggested people to move their cars. I ran out and the car was already gone (towed) along with other cars.. yes, I was confused and angry.

1. If my car got towed that quickly, I mean in the matter of 3-4 minutes, I would think the tow truck would have been there just right behind my car, and why wouldnt they just tell me to move my car in stead of waiting for me to get out of the car and towed it?

2. After I got myself together, I got in a taxi and went to pick up the car from the lot. I had a conversation with the driver about the incident. He said that he had a friend who works as a tow truck driver for the city. His friend told him that legally in the towing procedure, the ticket of the violation must be given first. If there is no action taken then the car could be towed. Is this true? What is the law and procedure?

RM

 

[The Occultist]

1.) Because of they wait until it is illegal for you to be there, then they can tow your car and get paid for it.

2.) I don't know IL statutes regarding tows, and any attempt on my part to find out would be to try Google (so you should try that). But, without knowing statutes, it only makes sense to me that parking in what is labeled as a tow-zone means they will tow your car, not give you a citation, especially when the zone lasts for only 2 hours. Maybe you'll find a better answer in Google, or somebody else will be along who is more knowledgeable.

 

[wirry1422]

First and foremost, the rush-hour parking restrictions on the Dan Ryan Expressway alternate routes signs were posted 3/1/06, ticketing started 3/15/06 and ticketing + towing started 4/3/06 [7-9 am, loop inbound (north), 4-6 pm loop outbound (south), except Roosevelt, 7-9am and 4-6pm both sides of street], so the restrictions aren't exactly recent (7 months ago). I can guess that most likely you parked on Roosevelt Road between Canal and Halsted streets (am I correct)? You stated that you parked probably a minute or so before 4 pm. On the radios that the city tow trucks have, a dispatcher always announces 4 pm on the radio, using the city clocks, which are calibrated automatically via satellite from the US official atomic clock. The city tow trucks will generally position themselves at a chosen hot spot, but will wait until 4pm is announced before starting to tow any cars. So if you parked your car a 1/2 block from a city tow truck at 3:58 pm, the tow truck driver (who probably didn't even know the precise time and was just waiting for the 4pm announcement) allowed you to go about your business because it wasn't 4 pm yet. But when the announcement was made, you were not with your car or anywhere in sight, and he certainly isn't going to chase you into the store. Now, just because your car was towed within 4 minutes of 4pm does not mean the tow truck was right near your car or that he even saw you park it. And even if he did, he is under no obligation to get out of his tow truck and stand at the curb shooing people away betweem 3:55 and 4pm
In high priority areas (such as the Dan Ryan alternate routes) the city will preposition tow trucks to the general area where a large amount of cars are usually always illegally parked, or where city cameras see a lot of parked cars at 3:50 pm. So if there were 5 illegally parked cars on that block and three city tow trucks prepositioned a block or so away, your car was one of the first three of the five to be hooked, and was probably lifted at 4:01:20 pm, which is a scenerio that is totally plausible and legal. Now as for the ticket, city tow trucks [the small yellow (or sometimes light blue) tow trucks with the bright orange LED light bars that say traffic management authority] are operated by city (employees) tow truck drivers who NOW have the authority to issue parking tickets themselves (this authority was not always the case but has recently been changed). So they will usually quickly tow the car, which takes them literally one minute or less, and will then write the parking ticket and place it on the windshield once they get to the pound (which is a legal procedure.) The only time a ticket is required before a car is towed is in areas away from the city center where the city contracts with private towing firms to perfom enforcement towing on the streets. These tow truck drivers are not city employees and cannot write their own tickets, so must therefore only tow ticketed cars, or cars authorized in writing for towing by a police officer.

 

[moburkes]

Well, it sounds like you got your answer!

 

[rujaneez]

street cleaning

Thank you for all your advice
Yes, another ticket question.. I have requested a hearing for the ticket I receive for street cleaning. The sign that was always there (now its gone) indicated street cleaning every Tuesday suddenly got replaced by the one that say basically we're gonna clean your street every g**d*mn day. When almost everyone who parked on that side of the street got the tickets for the same violation about a week after they change the sign, obviously nobody was aware of the change or noticed the sign. I know it s the way to make money for them, but is there anything I can do or say in court that I'm not liable for the fine? What kind of proof or evidence should I bring? or will they once again rob me?

RM

 

[wirry1422]

Well I have not actually seen a location where permanent street cleaning signs indicate that street cleaning is to occur on a daily basis. The signs usually always say a day of the week ( ie tuesdays 7-9am 4/1 to 10/31) or sometimes are twice a week signs (ie mondays and wednesdays 7-9 am 4/1 thru 10/31) I may have seen the signs you are talking about on Milwaukee ave. around logan square where it says no parking (1-5 am i think daily, but not sure). But in any event, the city started a pilot program where they print in the upper left corner of the sign "effective 1/1/06" or whatever such and such date", but i guess they aren't doing it for every new sign posting yet. In this case you need to either pay the fine or appeal in person, do not appeal by mail-you will lose in this case. By appealing in person you can explain the situation and answer the "judges" questions. Tell the judge that many many people got ticketed at the same time as you, and the judge should be able to look up the record for that block on that date and see that too many people were ticketed for the signs to have been up for very long. Thats the best that i can suggest other then bringing in a witness; perhaps another ticketed parker and you can team up.

 

[rujaneez]

street cleaning

Thank you for the advice. its very helpful. the street is the 18th and halsted and the sign (s) are up both sides of the street. Before it was only Tuesdays during a specific time/date period but now there are two; one says mondays and thursdays, and the other says tuesdays and fridays. Most people who got the tickets live on the street so the street is where we park our cars and never noticed the new signs until they got the tickets. I actually going to the hearing today for this one and the tow zone one. Thanks again for the advice I will give it a try..
RM

 

[wirry1422]

I'm a north side kinda guy so i'm not totally familiar with the universe south of madison. However, it sounds to me as if the city made some sort of mistake in their sign posting (it has happened before, notably when they hung the orange signs for street sweeping in my 'hood indicating monday, when monday was labor day. I called the alderman's office, and the sign hangers had to work overtime to change all the signs to tuesday.) It sounds as if there are two types of permanent signs denoting two different pairs of weekdays during which street cleaning is to take place, effectively blocking the street for street sweeping on 4 weekdays per week. This has got to be a mistake, I have never seen this configuration before (which in and of itself means nothing since i'm not some know everything god), but this posting with these two signs makes no logical sense anyway. So what i think happened is that the city crew was sent out to change the signs over from once weekday to two, but instead, two city crews showed up and put up "competing" signs. Whatever the cause, the police are just obligated to enforce whatever signs are posted. Besides appealing your ticket, you need to call your alderman's office asap, as in monday morning, and start complaining loudly about this problem. I can guarantee you, if you talk to someone in that office, they will have the issue resolved in very short order. (aldermen are generally very intolerant of city parking shenanigans like this in their wards).