Quote:
Originally Posted by Lotus7
Dear Judd-Pollyanna-holland, 
Unfortunately, what might be expected of competent tow truck operators and what's provided are often not the same. The example I mentioned, which was dramatic enough that I can still remember small details, occurred on Jackson Blvd. just east of State. There were temporary, paper no-parking signs posted because they were going to do some overnight street patching, and the Lexus and several others were parked there anyway. The tow truck was a blue City of Chicago truck, and the driver's ONLY priority was to remove the cars as fast as possible. The driver spent all of three minutes hooking up and towing away the Lexus. |
It's a shame. The law should under no circumstances dictate a, say $7000 repair cost just because a car is illegally parked. Imagine if you had gotten stuck on Lake Shore Dr. in the blizzard last February. Wouldn't you have wanted the operator to pay close attention to making sure your car is returned to you undamaged?
Weeks before I was supposed to give up my 535 wagon end-lease back in December, I was involved in an accident. A woman stopped in the left lane on Lake Shore Dr. around the blind curve near North Ave. to CLEAN HER WINDOWS (because somehow the electric-ness of her Land Rover's windows never occurred to her). Long story short, one guy hit her, the next guy hit that guy, and I had no time to react after coming around the bend, so I collided with cars two and three, skidding between them and the barrier. I thought the car was effectively totaled. The front axle had snapped, the steering rack was finished, and there was significant body damage. The police, in their ignorance to the $70,000 station wagon with Four Wheel Drive that had just incurred damage equal to half its residual value, called not a flatbed to take it off Lake Shore Dr., but a typical, two-wheel fastener crane tow truck. I stared at it as the tow truck took it away down the exit ramp, listening to the rear wheels skidding across the pavement, and then I heard an echoey "clunk," followed by a nails-on-chalkboard whine. My beloved wagon was finished. And maybe, had more attention been paid to the kind of drivetrain on the car, it might not have been totaled, and Ms. Window Washer wouldn't have incurred over $40,000 in damages. She lost her insurance anyways. All's well that ends well, I guess.