Texas Auto Accident Victims – Beware of Unscrupulous Towing Charges

If you’ve been involved in a serious Texas car or truck accident, police may require that your vehicle be towed from the scene.  Given that you could be suffering from serious injuries and trauma as a result of your accident, you probably won’t think twice about having your vehicle towed.  After all, your damaged car or truck has to be removed from the road somehow.

Unfortunately for Houston area accident victims, loopholes in City of Houston regulations allow unscrupulous tow truck and body shop companies to charge for work that victims may not be aware of.  According to current regulations, if police order that your car must be towed after an accident, a wrecker can charge up to $143.50.  The vehicle must then be towed to a city-regulated storage lot.

What is happening to some auto accident victims is that auto body shops are paying finders fees to wrecker drivers.  Wrecker drivers then try to encourage accident victims to take their vehicle to a particular body shop.  Accident victims – often upset and not thinking clearly after being injured in a crash – may sign a body shop work order without realizing it.

The fine print of these work orders gives permission for the body shop to do a ‘tear down’, which is what the body shop does to estimate damage to a vehicle.  Charging the victim of a car or truck accident for unnecessary work when they’ve just been traumatized in a wreck is a shameful practice.

Houston auto accident victims should be aware that they don’t have to sign a work order just to have their vehicle towed per police instruction.