Senate Bill No. 570

(By Senator Walters)

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[Introduced February 23, 2015; referred to the Committee on Government Organization.]

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A BILL to amend and reenact §24-6-12 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, relating to dispatching of towing services for emergency towing of vehicles.

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.

            (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 make an inventory of all available towing services located within and adjacent to the area covered by the emergency system and 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. When one or more towing services are present within the covered area, the responding personnel of the emergency telephone system or the enhanced emergency telephone system shall only dispatch a towing service from within that coverage area and where there are more than one available towing service within the coverage area, the personnel of the emergency telephone system or the emergency telephone system shall dispatch each service on a rotating basis in which services are rotated weekly. When there is no towing service located within the covered area, the personnel of the emergency telephone system or the enhanced emergency telephone system shall dispatch the towing service that is closest to the area covered by that system.

            (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 mandate the use of local towing services for the benefit of the owners of vehicles requiring emergency towing services.

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