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The Connecticut Senate on Friday approved by the most significant reform to the State’s tow policies in decades, a measure that legislators said Wolder help protect the drivers from the predatory beams.
The bill 7162 of the House of Representatives reviews the Centered State T -towing statutes and occurs in response to an investigation carried out by the Mirror and Propublic of Connecticut that showed how state -shaped state laws have favored the towing companies at the expense of the drivers. Several steps are needed to make vehicles more difficult from private property and Asier so that drivers recover their vehicles after a trailer.
The bill, which approved the House of Representatives last week with broad bipartisan support and little debate, sailed through the Senate in a vote of 33-3.
“It is a reform that guarantees transparency, guarantees equity and responsibility, but does all this without undermining the essential work that Tow’s ethical and professional operators do every day for us, maintaining our safe roads and our access measures, Christine Cohen, D-Guilford” we have learned over the years, and particularly on recent years due to some research reports, or some particular circumstances. “
A spokesman for Governor Ned Lamont said that the governor plans to sign the bill in the law.
Republican senator Tony Hwang, a classification member of the Transportation Committee, also spoke in favor of the bill. The bill reached about half an hour of debate before the passage, and there were no comments in the opposition.
Hwang, who repeats Fairfield, said the bill entails the appropriate balance between the interests of towers and consumers.
“I want to recognize that our press had an important part to highlight transparency and some of the bad actions, and I think that in this bill we address some of those problems,” said Hwang. “We take measures to ensure that there is due process, and what has been discovered that it happened in a criminal action, I think, should never happen again, to undermine the trust we have to have in this process.”
Connecticut’s law allows towing companies to start the process to sell vehicles after only 15 days. CT Mirror and Propublic discovered that it is one of the shortest windows in the nation, and that the law has partially affected people with low income. The journalists spoke with people who said that towing companies demanded to pay in cash or not allow them to obtain personal belongings from their vehicles. Many could not afford to recover their towing vehicles and lose transport or work for that.
After negotiation week, legislators said they reached a commitment to the trailer industry. Two bills were merged to include massive reforms to tow private property procedures and rate increases for road trailers that usually follow car accidents.
The bill that approved and would enter into force on October 1 requires that trailer companies accept credit cards and do not allow them to tow vehicles immediately just because or an expired parking or registration permit. Vehicles cannot be private property tugs without prior notice unless they block traffic, fire hydrants or parked in an accessible place.
According to the invoice, towing companies can still start the vehicle sales process worth $ 1,500 or less after 15 days, but now they would have to take more measures to give the owner the opportunity to claim the vehicle. The Motorized Vehicle Department would be requested to verify if the driver filed a complaint about the Tow before approved the sale, and the tower would send a notice before the sale to the registered owner and Lenholers.
The real sale could not pass up to 30 days after the trailer.
The bill also requires that the towers take at least two photos before towing a vehicle, one of the violations that resulted in a trailer and another of any damage to the vehicle. Cohen said this would help determine if the vehicles had missing pieces before the trailer, an apparent nod to the history of the AMV news organizations used that the agency’s researchers found schemes. (The employee denied having done something wrong, and the agency has finally not touched action in that case).
The bill also establishes a working group to study how to manage the procedures for sales of tool vehicles. The state law requires that towing companies have profits in warranty deposit for a year in case the vehicle owner claims them, then remit that money to the State. But CT Mirror and Propublic found that the DMV never established a system for this process to occur.
In addition, it requires that the passage of working with the State Attorney General to develop a declaration of consumer rights on the trailer.
Towing companies have to be exhibible after schedule and weekends to allow people to obtain their vehicles or personal goods. In a story published this month, CT Mirror and Propublic reported that cranes companies sometimes cling to people’s belongings to press them to pay their towing rates.
According to the new law, drivers may recover their belongings from their vehicles, even if they have not paid the towing rates. Currently, state regulations allow vehicle owners to recover only “personal property that is essential for the health or well -being of any person.”
Cohen listed many of the problems described in media reports such as “some of the sausage abuses of predatory towing practices.”
Timothy Vibert, president of T -towing professionals and recovery of Connecticut, said the industry initiator began the bill because Towers believed that it would be his ability to tow cars and clear the traffic. Hello, he also said that the towers are involved enough in the original draft. But they worked with legislators in the bill for several weeks, and issued a statement in support this week.
“Connecticut people deserve security, responsibility and transparency when their cars are towed, and also the people who work for Connecticut towing companions who risk our lives every day so that the roads are safe,” Vibert said. “We all need clear and easy to follow rules.”
Through Commissioner Tony Guerrera, confirmed the camera and the Senate.
“The DMV fully supports this initiative, since it not only improves the framework for the fair and equitable application of towing laws, but also provides a clear path for our agency to advance these efforts,” Guerrerera said in a statement.
Cohen said the bill aims to “fix a broken process” and that legislators had worked in some aspects for years before the bill was approved.
The news of the bill brought relief to Melissa Anderson, who appeared in a story of CT Mirror and Propublic after his car was towed and sold from his Hamden apartment because an expired parking permit.
The bill requires a grace period of 72 hours before a car can be tugboat for an expired parking sticker to allow people to obtain a new one.
“I’m making a difference,” Anderson said. “This is going to help many people.”
The following bill is directed to the Lamont desktop.
“The governor appreciates all the work that was done in this legislation, which provides greater protections for the public and their vehicles,” said Lamont spokesman Rob Blanchard, in a text message. “He plans to sign the legislation once he reaches his desk.”
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