Towing Issues: Disabled vehicle towed from freeway, tow companies, emergency line

Question
Last night I broke down on the freeway. I live in an area roughly 67 miles from the nearest town. I passed the Afton off ramp and as I dipped down into the little hill area my car sounded funny. I knew the next off ramp was basin and was going to pull off there and stop. While climbing the small incline my car died. I immediately pulled to the side with one tire in the dirt. My car was over enough that even when opening the driver door it did not cross the emergency line. This was as far as I could safely go and it left distance between my car and the main road. I had my pregnant daughter, my 18 year old daughter and my husband who recently was in ICU. I turned on the flashers and had them all exit to the side away from traffic and climb an embankment nearby to wait. I had my cell and my daughter had her husbands cell. We started calling to get someone to come and help us out. We reached a friend in the town 67 miles away. We let him know we were roughly 17 miles from home and he said he was on his way. At 1121 PM he called and said he was at the rest stop before the Afton exit and asked how much farther we were. He said he was leaving the rest stop and would be there soon. When he arrived we loaded the groceries and our daughters into his small car by this time both cells were completely dead. We then traveled the 17 miles to our home and started calling everyone trying to get the car towed. We do not have tow insurance and did not have any cash. By this morning we finally had decided to talk to the tow companies (there are two in our area) and see if we could have it towed and pay on the 5th which is payday. One of them said yes and even came and picked up my husband to take him to the car. As my husband and the driver were heading south bound they spotted our car on the North bound said there was a tow truck from the other company there parked ahead of it and a CHP behind it. The driver called the other companies dispatch informing them that they were there and simply turning around, at this time the car was not hooked up and the truck driver was talking to the CHP. The dispatcher said ok and said you also need to call the CHP which the driver did. In the time it took them to turn around at the Afton off ramp the CHP had left and the driver had lowered his trailer. They pulled up while the other driver was still connecting chains. The driver told my husband he could not have his car it was being towed and refused to unchain it and let our driver take it. He told my husband he was taking it to their yard and storing it. Our driver was going to take it to our home. Now the other company wants 165 for the tow and said they are going to charge us 35 a day to store it. Do we have any rights we did not just leave it and go away we worked hard to get a tow and have it towed home so we could afford it. But this other company says pay us or lose it. What can we do? Do we have any rights?

Answer
Well sorry to hear about this issue happening to you, but California has a lot of laws regarding parking on highways and freeways. I have seen some references to being allowed parking for 4 hours, 8 hours, and of course no time allowed.

It all depends on a lot of issues, and while you describe being that far off the highway, there is the "potential traffic - safety hazard" which has the officer able to make that choice.

That is a huge gray area which will be hard to battle.

Now as to the CHP and the other tow company, it sounds like they were called in by CHP under the contract which they have. And those contracts will be another key in what you can do.
Yes they are entitled to get paid for responding to the call from CHP, and if they are hooked up in any manner you will have to pay.
But if the officer did not know that you were on the way to remove the vehicle, then you have problems. The other tow company most likely did not tell the officer or CHP that you were almost there. I know that hindsight is great, but did anyone call CHP and tell then you were on the way???

Yes, you can loose the vehicle if you do not pay the towing and storage fees, and that needs to be taken care of quickly. I hope you have removed the vehicle so that charges do not keep going up.

Now if you check out the link below you can start to research the laws regarding parking or stopping on highways - freeways.

http://www.dmv.ca.gov/pubs/vctop/vc/vc_index_f.htm

Pay attention to sections 21960, 21718, and 22651 in the freeway section of the California DMV website rules.