[kellyhound]

A Honduran tow truck driver died yesterday after a pick-up truck that was being towed by a tow truck crew fell on him.

The victim received the full weight of the pick-up truck on his body, which was between the tow truck and a wall.

Police told that the vehicle got unhooked after the owner approached it without authorization and revved the engine to get off the tow truck. The car was being towed after the owner parked his car in a prohibited zone.

The owner of the pick-up, after revving the engine and realizing what happened, fled.

The municipal tow trucker, J. R. B. S. died at the scene.

The site was attended by rescuers from the Fire Department, who, after freeing him, in anguishing minutes in which he was struggling between life and death, gave him first aid but he no longer showed vital signs at the time of being treated by paramedics that arrived soon after.

[kellyhound]

pics:

[docfr8]

This guy tried to drive his shit off and ended up killing the tow truck dude.. If he could have parked his shit somewhere else then he would have his truck and dude would be alive.. But thats a big "IF"

[TypeOnegative]

Probably a bad idea to try to catch a pickup truck as if it were a baseball. Also, article says the guy was trying to take his own car without authorization? It’s his car. These predatory towing companies and vehicle booters are comically evil people. In many places they don’t need clear markings displayed that it’s a tow away zone and they work for private owners not any legal government agency. That means you can buy a piece of land by a popular area, turn it into a parking lot, not mark that it’s privately owned and not for whatever business, and hire your own tow agency to sit idly by and tow anyone who thinks they can park there. And share a cut in the unregulated income you get from people buying back their own damn cars.

Very few places have started recognizing the industry as a predatory practice and started making laws against it. Some big cities have started regulating it, but there are too many that haven’t. They figure if you buy the property that you can do what you want with it, including charging what you want for people to park on it, disguising it as public parking, and preying on people who don’t know the difference.

See: assholes.

If one of them thinks he can catch a Toyota Tacoma then good fucking riddance.

[habsphannn]

Originally Posted by TypeOnegative ↗

Probably a bad idea to try to catch a pickup truck as if it were a baseball. Also, article says the guy was trying to take his own car without authorization? It’s his car. These predatory towing companies and vehicle booters are comically evil people. In many places they don’t need clear markings displayed that it’s a tow away zone and they work for private owners not any legal government agency. That means you can buy a piece of land by a popular area, turn it into a parking lot, not mark that it’s privately owned and not for whatever business, and hire your own tow agency to sit idly by and tow anyone who thinks they can park there. And share a cut in the unregulated income you get from people buying back their own damn cars.

Very few places have started recognizing the industry as a predatory practice and started making laws against it. Some big cities have started regulating it, but there are too many that haven’t. They figure if you buy the property that you can do what you want with it, including charging what you want for people to park on it, disguising it as public parking, and preying on people who don’t know the difference.

See: assholes.

If one of them thinks he can catch a Toyota Tacoma then good fucking riddance.

Are you an attorney in Honduras or are Honduran towing practices among your hobbies?

[Desert Rat]

Interesting comment, TypeOnegative. I didn't consider the wrecker being involved in a racket. If you have more info on this type of activity, could you provide it please?

Also, a flatbed makes a terrible repo wrecker. Needs an underlift.

[pokerplay]

So these moments happen right? Where tow truck driver and driver unfortunately meet. Tow truck cock suckers, just give the car back and make the penalty triple. Risking life and limb for a fucking piece of metal and making what? a few dollars. Bunch a cunts out there ruining everyone's day for chicken shit parking tickets too, not always a car blocking something. Anyway, fuck those guys.

[b0g]

In stead of viewing from the private co. viewpoint, you can also look at it from the public/local/federal viewpoint.
I have seen the amount of local parking spaces being reduced to +- 30% in 15 years. That is the local gov. placing boulders, no park stripes etc. and leasing parking ticket hunting to a private co. Not cops but employees of the prv. co. giving tickets.
The contract has been reduced,

but over the years "intelligent camera's" have been deployed by thousands.
Not only for speed tickets.
If you have a "dirty" car, you can get an automatic fine simply driving into a "low emission zone".
But don't mention all the "low carbon"/'climate friendly' industry like colossal chemical and petro co. a few km. away from the city.

[TypeOnegative]

Originally Posted by habsphannn ↗

Are you an attorney in Honduras or are Honduran towing practices among your hobbies?

No, but I worked for one stateside. I took cases against commercialized predatory towing up until it was no longer legal where I’m at. Am I familiar specifically with Honduran practices? No. However, I’ve lived across South Asia, Europe, and US and the practice is the same in each place with varying degrees of anti-community penalties. And seriously, fuck those guys. For every incident you can find where the signage was clearly visible you can find a dozen where there’s no signage at all. It’s exploitation pure and simple. They know it. And anyone who has been a victim of it knows it.

[TypeOnegative]

Originally Posted by Desert Rat ↗

Interesting comment, TypeOnegative. I didn't consider the wrecker being involved in a racket. If you have more info on this type of activity, could you provide it please?

Also, a flatbed makes a terrible repo wrecker. Needs an underlift.

I worked for an attorney’s office that fought these guys for years. Eventually some local laws passed to end predatory towing. Before that they’d make deals with anyone. There was an apartment that had a deal with a towing company. Aside from each tenant’s personal spaces the apartment had 10 total guest spots. The only difference between guest spots and tenant spots were numbers on the asphalt with no signage explaining it. On their exit gate was a sign that had the info for the towing company but no info as to what spots you could park in or not. It was intentionally obscure.

The tow truck would park in the lot actually taking up two of the ten spots and the driver would do rounds scanning plates of anyone who parked. On one specific claim we received from that apartment a designated driver walked a friend to their door, turned around and the truck was attaching to his car just like in this video. He wasn’t but twenty feet away and hadn’t been out of his car for a minute. The tow took his car, called into dispatch and dispatch wrote up a report stating the vehicle had been reported a half hour before the car got there. And the victim had the receipts to prove it.

Cops didn’t care. Guy had to pay over $500 to buy his own car out of the lot for dropping off a friend.

Thing is, we got small claims like that all the time. That’s just from the people who had the money to get their car out and fight the damn thing.

In almost every case the wreckers themselves called in the vehicles, instead of the parking lot owner or more appropriately someone impacted by the parked car.

If you want to know why that’s predatory just compare it to the reason hollywood movie producers can’t own or fund movie theater chains in the US. It prevents a movie producer from refusing to air competitor’s films. They actually did this in the early 1900s until it was made illegal.

Now back to tow trucks. In municipalities where predatory towing is legal, you can own a wrecker business, buy out parking lots near populated areas and special events, and then tow cars from the parking lot you own to another parking lot you own and then charge them for parking, getting towed, and being stored all by you. And you can charge whatever you want.

The government might step in and say you can’t own a wrecker and a private parking lot, and then you just get with the management of an existing property and make them a deal to share your profits in the exploitation. So long as predatory towing is legal there’s an unethical loophole to make it more profitable.

And ask yourself as someone impacted by it, if you were blocked by this guy’s vehicle for whatever reason and he says “I’ll move it” to the wrecker and gets in his truck. Which is more community friendly and less of a nuisance? Him moving his own vehicle, or waiting for the proper procedures needed to tow it? What is more invasive to other people? The single car taking a single space, or the money and resources used to either boot the vehicle or tow it?

That’s for you to decide. I, for one, have zero sympathy for people in exploitative careers that exist only to steal from their fellow citizens. Fuck them. I’m glad he’s dead.