L.L. 1993/112

Enactment date: 12/29/1993

Int. No. 602-A

By Council Members Fisher and Robles; also Council Members Castaneira-Colon, O'Donovan and Williams

A Local Law in relation to a playground name, Vincent V. Abate Playground, Borough of Brooklyn

Be it enacted by the Council as follows:

Section 1. Legislative findings. The council hereby finds that certain members of the towing industry continue to engage in reckless conduct which threatens life and property. It is a pervasive practice of many tow truck operators to monitor police radio transmissions to learn of accidents and then to race to accident sites in disregard of speed limits and other traffic regulations in order to secure towing and repair work. The council further finds that the Directed Accident Response Program ("DARP") established by local law number 28 for the year 1987 has not sufficiently eliminated this problem. Under the law creating DARP, vehicle owners may avoid the use of a designated DARP towing company by choosing to call their own tower. By allowing vehicle owners to call their own towing companies, DARP has had the unintended result of encouraging towing companies to chase to the accident scene and persuade vehicle owners to accept their services and to declare to police officers that the vehicle owners themselves initiated these contacts.

The council finds that an effective way to curb these illegal practices and to enhance enforcement is to not allow non-commercial vehicle owners to call their own tower to the scene of an accident, to divide the city into special accident response districts containing zones that are smaller than current zones and to authorize one but not more than three companies to be the exclusive provider or providers of service in a particular zone. Only one towing company will service a particular zone in a special accident response district during a specified period of time. By limiting the number of companies that service a zone, the appropriate enforcement agencies will be better able to enforce against those towers who illegally monitor police radios and chase to accident scenes to solicit towing and repair work. This system would also encourage the towers to report violations by chasers who are not authorized to service the zone.

The council finds and declares that it is in the interest of the public health, safety and welfare to authorize the commissioner of consumer affairs to establish one or more special accident response districts as part of a demonstration program.

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[Consolidated provisions are not included in this Appendix A]

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§ 27. The commissioner of consumer affairs shall submit a report to the council on the implementation of the special accident response districts designated pursuant to section 20-518.1 of the administrative code of the city of New York, as added by section twenty-one of this local law, no later than one year after the effective date of the first special accident response district designated by the commissioner pursuant to such section 20-518.1, which effective date shall be prescribed by rule of the commissioner. No later than sixty days after the commissioner of consumer affairs has submitted such report to the council, the mayor shall submit to the council any proposed legislation necessary to implement such report's recommendations. No later than one hundred twenty days after the commissioner of consumer affairs has submitted such report to the council, the council's consumer affairs committee shall conduct a hearing to review the effectiveness of special accident response districts and to consider legislation proposed by the mayor, if any, to implement the report's recommendations.

§ 28. This local law shall take effect one hundred twenty days after it shall have been enacted into law, provided, however, that sections six, ten, thirteen, fifteen, seventeen, twenty, twenty-one and twenty-four shall expire and shall be of no further force and effect eighteen months after the effective date of the first special accident response district designated by the commissioner of consumer affairs pursuant to section 20-518.1 of the administrative code of the city of New York, as added by section twenty-one of this local law, which effective date shall be prescribed by rule of the commissioner, provided, however, that if the effective date of the first special accident response district is more than sixty days after the effective date of this local law, such sections shall expire and be of no further force and effect eighteen months after the effective date of this local law, and, provided, further, that the commissioner of consumer affairs may promulgate any necessary rules and take any other actions necessary for the timely implementation of this local law prior to such effective date.