Tow-retrieval charge takes a hike in Victoria

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Times Colonist July 23, 2010



The cost of getting your car back if it's towed from a Victoria street or parking lot is going up.

Victoria councillors yesterday agreed to a hike in the towing fees companies can charge to $85.50 from $65. The storage fee will increase to $20 from $15.

Fees were last increased in 1995.

Towing companies will also be allowed to charge $33.60 for the use of a dolly in a tow.

The city tows vehicles that are illegally parked on streets or in city lots.

Councillors were told the rate increase is needed for companies to meet increased costs.

Only Coun. Philippe Lucas voted against the increase, arguing he couldn't support it without evidence that the increases were necessary to cover costs.

The increases are designed to bring Victoria rates, which have been among the lowest in the region, more in line with neighbouring municipalities.

Saanich recently increased its tow rate to $75 from $65 and Esquimalt's $65 rate is under review.

Because the Victoria Police Department negotiates its own towing services contract, police-initiated tows can be exempt from the city towing bylaw.

Read more: http://www.timescolonist.com/news/retrieval+charge+takes+hike+Victoria/3312693/story.html#ixzz0unQKBGoU
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Tow-retrieval charge takes a hike in Victoria

Diesels make bad dentists

pulled from Toronto Sun
July 21,2010

A Kitchener truck driver is facing a careless driving charge but on the bright side, his tooth doesn’t hurt anymore.

Lambton County OPP say they stopped a big rig driver doing some driving dentistry along Hwy. 402 on Wednesday.

Const. John Reurink told the Sun Saturday it’s the first time he’s ever heard of a driver being pulled over performing dental surgery.

“I’ve never heard of this sort of thing occurring before,” Reurink said, adding he has stopped drivers doing their make-up, reading a map or talking on a cellphone. “Somebody doing an amateur tooth pulling? That’s a first.”

Reurink said it all started June 30 when an officer was on Hwy. 402 in Warwick Township, near Sarnia, and a passing driver pointed him to a tractor trailer being driven “all over the road.”

The officer found the eastbound rig and pulled it over.

Cops determined the 58-year-old driver was driving so poorly because he was trying to pull out a tooth while he was driving.

“The driver was very forthright with the officer,” Reurink said.

The amateur dentist of a driver had rigged a string around his hurting tooth and then tied the other end to the roof of the cab, police said.

“One good bump and the tooth should come out,” police explained.

Turns out the “one good bump” likely did come along at some point.

“The evidence of his efforts were nearby,” Reurink said.

When the driver was stopped the officer found a bloody tooth and a string lying next to him.

Strangely, police say the road down that way isn’t that bumpy and was recently resurfaced.

“He may have been better off on a sideroad,” Reurink said.

Police won’t be releasing the driver’s name because he’s charged under the Highway Traffic Act, not the Criminal Code, and they figure he’d be “continuously bombarded” by media trying to talk to him about his stunt - which would likely be more of a headache than a toothache.
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- msaks@ectts.com

Council bill would prohibit towing without tickets

Article Summary

• The Philadelphia  city council has voted that a car cannot be towed from a private lot without a ticket 
• The council is enacting this to stop what they call "rogue towers"
• Some towing groups believe this will create a paperwork nightmare for police

Key quote from article

"This will be 56,000 times every quarter that a policeman may have to be called to issue a ticket, and I'll be interested to see on a map . . . where policemen were issuing tickets when major crimes were occurring elsewhere in the district," Green said.

to read more click here