Towing Issues: accident towing damage, small claims court, tow company

Question
Richard,
  I live in Bradenton, FL. My vehicle ran up a concrete curb in the Walgreens parking lot and needed to be winched out. I understand that I did damage the underneath of the vehicle but the bumper was still intact. The tower who winched the vehicle off the curb ended up ripping off my bumper. My insurance is covering the cost of the "accident" but I feel the provider should cover my deductible since he ended up ripping off the bumper. The tow company says that they are not responsible since the damage they did is a result of cleaning the "accident" I was in.

Answer
Corey, there are a few things here which seem strange.

First of all the concrete curb must of been real high to get a vehicle hung up on so bad it needed a tow truck to get it off...

Second your insurance company is paying for "secondary damages" which is what the tow company did by ripping off your bumper (makes me wonder what they hooked to, or how they got it out)

Now I am assuming that you told the insurance company what happened and as such they know the tow company did the damage to the bumper.

The deductible would still be there if they did not do the damage to the bumper and  you would be responsible for that damage. But the idea of the tow company not being responsible for damages while they were "cleaning up the accident" seems to be wrong even to me...

I know at times damage happens getting vehicles out from where they are and that at times is acceptable.


I think there is a bit more to this as while I was not there and do not know the parking area I really can not visualize the whole thing, it seems strange that it happened...
Call it lack of training or just plain hooking to the wrong spot for the bumper being ripped off, I do not know, but something does not seem right to me.


I hope this helps, and even though you might be out the deductible, there is always the small claims court route to go after the tow company if nothing else happens.