Senate Bill No. 598

(By Senator Hunter)

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[Introduced February 20, 2004; referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.]

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A BILL to amend and reenact §24-6-12 of the code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, relating to removing municipalities that operate either an emergency telephone system or an enhanced emergency telephone from the requirement of establishing, every three years, a policy that provides the most prompt, fair, equitable and effective response to requests or dispatches for emergency towing services.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §24-6-12 of the code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 6. LOCAL EMERGENCY TELEPHONE SYSTEM.
§24-6-12. Dispatching of towing services for emergency towing of vehicles; exceptions.

(a) Every three years, the county commission of each county or the municipality operating an emergency telephone system or an enhanced emergency telephone system shall, in consultation with all public safety units, public agencies and all available towing services registered as common carriers pursuant to the provisions of chapter twenty-four-a of this code, establish a policy that provides for the most prompt, fair, equitable and effective response to requests or dispatches for emergency towing services.
(b) For each incident where towing services are required, the public agency procuring towing services shall maintain a public record of the name of the towing service utilized.



NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to remove municipalities that operate either an emergency telephone system or an enhanced emergency telephone from the requirement of establishing, every three years, a policy that provides the most prompt, fair, equitable and effective response to requests or dispatches for emergency towing services.

Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.