(A) Employees of the County Sheriff’s Department and County Highway Department are authorized to remove or have removed a vehicle from a roadway to the nearest garage or other place of safety, including another place or a roadway, or to a garage designated or maintained by the Sheriff’s Department, Highway Department or facility maintained by the county, when:
(1) The vehicle is parked on a part of a roadway on which a transportation or snow emergency or parking prohibition is in effect;
(2) The vehicle is stalled on a part of a roadway on which there is a transportation or snow emergency in effect and the person who was operating the vehicle does not appear to be removing it in accordance with the provisions of this subchapter and the vehicle presents a hazard to traffic flow, snow or debris removal or other emergency operations; and
(3) The vehicle is parked in violation of any parking ordinance or provisions of law and is interfering or about to interfere with snow or debris removal or any other emergency operations.
(B) Whenever the Sheriff’s Department or Highway Department removes or has removed a vehicle from a roadway as authorized in this section and the Sheriff’s Department or Highway Department knows, or is able to ascertain from the registration records in the vehicle, the name and address of the owner thereof, the Sheriff’s Department or Highway Department shall immediately attempt to give or cause to be given notice of the removal in writing to the owner of the vehicle. In the event any vehicle is stored in a public garage, a copy of the notice shall be given to the proprietor of the garage.
(C) Whenever the Sheriff’s Department or Highway Department removes or has removed a vehicle from a roadway under this subchapter and does not know or is not able to ascertain the name of the owner, or for any other reason is unable to give the notice to the owner as hereinbefore provided and, in the event the vehicle is not returned to the owner within a period of three days, the Sheriff’s Department or Highway Department shall immediately send or cause to be sent a written report of the removal by mail to the Bureau of Motor Vehicles, 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 notice shall include a complete description of the vehicle, the date, time and place from which removed, the reasons for the removal and the name of the garage or place where the vehicle is stored.
(D) No person shall recover any vehicle removed in accordance with this section, except as provided herein. Before the owner or person in charge of the vehicle shall be allowed to recover it from the place where it has been placed or impounded, he or she shall present to a member of the County Sheriff’s Department, or authorized towing service, evidence of his or her identity and right to possession of the vehicle, shall sign a receipt for its return and shall pay the cost of removal, plus any costs of storage accrued. Until paid, these charges constitute a lien on the vehicle which may be enforced in conformance with I.C. 32-8-31-5 or I.C. 9-9-5-6.
(E) It shall be the duty of the Sheriff’s Department and/or Highway Department to keep a record of each vehicle removed in accordance with this section. The record shall include a description of the vehicle, its license number, the date and time of its removal, where it was removed from, its location, the name and address of its owner and last operator, if known, its final disposition and the parking violation involved. The towing service authorized by the Sheriff’s Department and/or the Highway Department will obtain said record for each vehicle removed by the towing service for which a Sheriff’s Department vehicle tow in card is not provided. The authorized towing service shall provide said records to the Sheriff’s Department for each vehicle so removed.
(F) To facilitate the removal of abandoned vehicles pursuant to this subchapter, the Sheriff’s Department or Highway Department may enter into towing contracts or agreements for the removal and storage of abandoned vehicles.
(G) Neither the owner, lessee or occupant of the property from which an abandoned vehicle is removed, nor the Highway Department, County Commissioners or Sheriff’s Department, authorized towing service or automobile scrapyard, shall be liable for any loss or damage to any vehicle occurring during its removal, storage or disposition. Neither shall the County Highway Department, nor any employee of the Department, nor any private contractor engaged by the Department, be held liable for any loss or damage to any vehicle which is parked, stalled or abandoned on a roadway when such damage occurs during snow or debris removal operations.
(H) This section shall be supplemental to any other provisions of law granting members of the Sheriff’s Department authority to remove vehicles.
(1982 Code, § 47.07) (Ord. passed 2-12-1997)