Towing Issues: Staying in Car While Being Towed - Is this legal?, tow truck driver, crew cabs

Question
Hi,
My car recently broke down while I had my wife and two infants in the car. A flatbed tow truck came and he didn't have any room in his car, so he told us to stay in our car and he lifted us up on the back of the flatbed tow truck and we rode in our car while being towed. This seemed VERY UNSAFE to me. Is this illegal? This was in New Jersey on the Jersey Turnpike. Thanks for the help!

Answer
As a tow truck driver, I am always faced with this issue in real life and with questions here..

As far as I know and can find, there are NO LAWS regarding this issue.  BUT ethically it is wrong in most everyone's eyes...

It's a major issue with safety...  BUT one thing we are faced with in the towing industry, is that when we get calls for vehicles broke down, no one ever asks (motor clubs) or tells us how many people are with the vehicle...
We have to follow laws regarding 1 person for each seatbelt, and not many tow trucks are set up to handle more than 2 additional people in the cab...  

The biggest question a lot of people have is that who would be responsible if a taxi cab was called to take the people home, or to where ever... Given the SUV and Mini Van market, there are lots of vehicles which are carrying 4 or 5 people in them.

Sure there are specialized units available to tow companies which have extended or crew cabs. But those also are much more expensive to purchase.  

Taking this question one step further, what if someone in the vehicle was handicapped and in a wheel chair..   You can see the point here, there were specialized vehicles made for this kind of calls, but when a regular tow truck costs $ 50,000 and a specialized truck with an extended cab or crew cab costs about $ 65,000 and a wheel chair capable equipped truck would run about $ 100,000 or more.  

The question changes to would you pay more for a specialized vehicle capable of handing the extra or special needs to do the tow, or are you like the majority of customers...  Shop for lowest price...

Sorry to rant but that's what we in the towing industry are faced with every day...

Now back to the question,  One thing about your question.. You mentioned that it seemed UNSAFE to you, well you could of made some requests for a taxi or told them you were not going to use them as it was unsafe... BUT you did not mention how far you were towed this way.  Was it to the nearest exit and a place of safety or was it 100 miles to your home...  This can also be an issue....  Do you really want to be left standing on the side of the roadway ?   I would be interested in knowing more about how far you were towed.