City of Friendswood

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

News Contact: Lisa Price, (281) 996-3313

Houston SAFEclear Program NOT a Policy for Friendswood Thoroughfares

January 3, 2005—The City of Friendswood has received several inquiries regarding Houston's SAFEclear Freeway Traffic Incident Management Program. This program does not apply to any highways that are located within the City of Friendswood. The Friendswood Police Department has reviewed Houston's program and it does not believe that such a program is needed in the City of Friendswood.

The Houston program allows tow truck drivers, who have received special training and acquired special decals from the City of Houston, to remove stalled, wrecked or otherwise disabled vehicles from the freeway lanes as rapidly as possible. The SAFEclear wreckers have a mandatory six-minute response time. The drivers will be authorized to perform "non-consent" tows of all vehicles that have received a tow authorization from a Houston police officer on-scene or located at a permanent monitor station located within Houston Transtar. The driver of a towed vehicle will be charged $75 plus $1.50 for each additional mile after the fifth mile. Signs will be erected along the freeway within the City of Houston indicating the beginning and ending of SAFEclear zones. The signs, which bear a bright red image of a vehicle hooked up to a tow truck, say, "Disabled Vehicles Will Be Towed".

The Friendswood Police Department believes that the provisions of Section 545.305 of the State Transportation Code provide ample authority for the Police Department to conduct non-consent tows in limited circumstances at the owner's expense. These circumstances pertain to vehicles that are obstructing or left unattended on a highway. In each case, a Friendswood police officer must be on location for a non-consent tow to occur. The police department requires a twenty-minute response time for wreckers authorized to conduct non-consent tows in the City of Friendswood. Whenever possible, the Friendswood Police Department will work with the owners of disabled vehicles to have vehicles removed by a wrecker of their choice, provided that the highway can be cleared of the obstruction within a reasonable time.

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