Towing Issues: tow of illigally parked cdl truck. truck was damaged in colorado (jefferson county), colorado puc, move laws

Question
I am the distribution lead at an oxygen company, and recently one of our hazmat trucks was towed. The truck was illegally parked, and I understand that part. What I am concerned about is the fact that the truck was damaged quite a bit in the towing. The front bumper was pulled up in the middle, the horns will not work any more, as well as a few other things that have been broken. The damage is obviously towing related. My first question is who pays for the damage? The tow company that we picked up the truck from was a different company than the one that actually towed it (they contracted the tow because their trucks couldn't tow this size truck)My second question is legally can a company tow a hazmat truck without a hazmat license? I don't know if they had one or not. If they didn't have a license does that open any other doors to make it easier to recover damages? I did happen to have a camera and documented all the damages at the lot. Thank You for your help!

Answer
Since you are dealing with towing damage to the vehicle, you should be going after the tow company which you paid the money to. They are the "TOWER OF RECORD" which would stand in court.

Talk to them, be civil and keep really good notes. Get the damage looked at and get some estimates for repair. Give the tow company copies of the estimates and such and tell them they are responsible for the damages even if they "subcontracted out the towing" which might be illegal under Colorado PUC laws, which govern the towing industry.


Now as to the "HAZ MAT ISSUE"

Towers can move vehicles containing Hazardous Materials without endorsements under a provision in the laws due to the "emergency move laws".
We do have some "special exemptions" which allow us to move vehicles or work more than our 14 hours due to the emergency nature of our business.

But I am not sure if "TOW AWAYS" from private property can rightfully fit into the "EMERGENCY MOVE" category. After all that generally applies when the tow is ordered by law enforcement.
Potential gray area here, on that subject.

So back to the damages, which do happen at times but we all wish that we could avoid them, the key will be documentation of the damage and the attempts to get the damages repaired so that the vehicle is "in the same condition as it was before towing"

Good luck and I hope that this helped, if not you might contact Colorado PUC office for more information from them about the Haz Mat issue.