(A) Members of the Police Department are authorized to remove a vehicle from a street or highway to the nearest garage or other place of safety, or to a garage designated or maintained by the Police Department, or otherwise maintained by the city under the following circumstances:
(1) When any vehicle is left unattended upon any bridge, viaduct or causeway, or in any tube or tunnel where the vehicle constitutes an obstruction to traffic.
(2) When a vehicle upon a highway is so disabled as to constitute an obstruction to traffic and the person or persons in charge of the vehicle are by reason of physical injury incapacitated to such an extent as to be unable to provide for its custody or removal.
(3) When any vehicle is left unattended upon a street and is so parked illegally as to constitute a definite hazard or obstruction to the normal movement of traffic.
(B) Whenever an officer removes a vehicle from a street as authorized in this section, and the officer knows or is able to ascertain from the registration records in the vehicle the name and address of the owner, the officer shall immediately give or cause to be given, notice in writing to the owner of the removal, the reasons therefor and the place to which the vehicle has been removed. In the event the vehicle is stored in a public garage, a copy of the notice shall be given to the proprietor of the garage.
(C) Whenever an officer removes a vehicle from a street under this section and does not know and is not able to ascertain the name of the owner, or for any reason is unable to give notice to the owner, and in the event the vehicle is not returned to the owner within a period of three days, the officer shall immediately send or cause to be sent written report of the removal by mail to the state department whose duty it is to register motor vehicles, and shall file a copy of the notice with the proprietor of any public garage in which the vehicle may be stored. The notices shall include a complete description of the vehicle, the date, time and place from which removed, the reason for the removal and the name of the garage or place where the vehicle is stored.
(1979 Code, § 70.69) (Ord. 1477, passed 8-2-1950) Penalty, see § 70.999
Statutory reference:
Removal of vehicle, see I.C. 9-21-16-3 and 9-21-16-4