If you’re not familiar with the story, you can read it here or here.
Short version:
A young woman was involved in a minor collision on the interstate in Asheville, NC. She was not hurt but her car could not be driven. She has disabilities and her car has a visible handicapped placard. The car was moved to the side of the interstate- her door was two feet from the road- and a tow truck was called.
The tow truck driver examined her car, saw her Bernie Sanders stickers and paraphernalia, and refused to tow her, saying it violated his politics and his religion. He left. Unable to walk anywhere for help she had to remain by a very busy interstate for two hours until another tow truck came.
I think few would doubt the tow truck driver is a piece of owl shit and one of the tens of millions of “Jesus Christ is to be revered and worshiped, not listened to and emulated!” school of Conservative Christianity, but this isn’t a recreational outrage pitting. I’m curious as somebody who hasn’t studied law if this woman has any kind of case against him since
1- He was called to do an emergency service
2- He refused to do the emergency service for reasons not related to his safety or professional considerations
3- Because he refused to the emergency service a woman with disabilities was required to call somebody else and wait two hours near the side of an interstate, putting her in danger of car accident or criminal activity
From the story I read about it, apparently he didn’t violate any laws since he hadn’t signed a contract yet. I’m guessing that some basis could be found for a lawsuit, but maybe not any criminal case.
I am absolutely unaware of any criminal law that this conduct might have violated.
The civil implications are not as clear to me, and I defer to those – everyone, basically – who know civil law better than I.
But in my barely-informed guesswork-type opinion, I don’t really see a case here. There was no contract between the motorist and the tow driver. Ordinances and law might proscribe penalties for refusing a customer based on race or religion. There are probably penalties for refusing to tow because he hates the handicapped. But refusals based on who she supports politically are not prohibited.
I welcome correction from those more versed in civil law, but I don’t see any violation of law here.
Certain people may be bound to provide service to all others when exercising their job functions. Examples of this are doctors, policemen, firemen, and other emergency workers. I don’t believe that tow-truck drivers fall into that class.
Ok, the car was on an Interstate highway. That often means the tow truck operator needed authorization to pick up cars there. I don’t see how that leads to a criminal violation of a law, but at least his authorization to tow from the highway could be revoked. If he has some agreement with the state maybe he’s got some contractual obligation to tow, and then maybe if something happened to the woman while she was waiting for another tow truck he could get charged with something, but that sounds pretty remote.
If the tow truck driver had been contracted to tow for law enforcement there might be something in the local statutes. That does not seem to be the case. In fact the way I read the articles your use of “emergency service” is not correct. The car was off to the side of the road and deemed safe enough that the driver was able to get it towed privately to her mechanic instead of removed immediately on an emergency basis. The garage was some distance away so the driver expected a delay and was not in any danger. It was an inconvenience not an emergency.
I could not tell you if that is the case in North Carolina. I can tell you in my state that is only true on a couple of private toll roads such as the Garden State Parkway and NJ Turnpike. On all other highways you don’t need special authorization. Since there apparently was some sort of non-critical accident I’m assuming that wasn’t the case here otherwise the cops would have insisted on the car being towed by their wrecker. But that’s just an assumption.
It’s different everywhere. In my jurisdiction local operators ask to be put on the list and are on call for 24 hours on a rotational basis. When towing in an official capacity they must charge using the rates in the local ordinance. Our traffic officers periodically monitor them to ensure they are in compliance. I’m sure that’s similar in most places because it wouldn’t be cost effective to maintain your own equipment unless you are in a large busy city.
If the woman could show that the tow truck driver did offer services to other Bernie supporters, and only refused service to her, she might have a case, that his claimed refusal wasn’t because she was a Bernie supporter, but it was because she was handicapped…then she might have a case.
That’s how it works here in RI. I don’t think we have any restricted roads, maybe there’s something special for the major bridges. I recall in PA long ago only some trucks were supposed to tow on some highways, maybe that was limited to the PA Turnpike. Here it’s the type of informal list you mention in your next post, worst case they’d take someone off the list I think. The issue of who gets on the list in Providence came up a few years ago, there’s no formal system and there were claims of favoritism. Not sure what happened from that. It would probably be a good idea to formalize these systems, but even so this doesn’t sound like a case where the police called for the tow anyway.
And by case I’m thinking you are talking about a tort? The OP asked about laws being broken. I think that has been answered. As for a civil suit? My novice opinion is that you could argue that when called he agreed to come out and tow the car which is a verbal contract he broke. Even if that is the case what kind of damages could she be looking at? How much is an hour of waiting for another tow worth?