Towing Issues: Towing technician lost control of car, engine oil pan, lift tow

Question
Portland, OR

About a year ago, I called to have my car towed to a repair shop. My house is on a hill, the car was in the driveway, the battery had died. The towing technician parked the Wheel Lift tow truck down the street at the bottom of the hill and lowered the tow bars. He was going to attempt to roll the car out of the driveway, and jump in quickly to press the brake before it went racing down the hill. Well he missed the brake, and lost control of the car, running over a curb, then smashing into the tow truck running over the tow bars/tow yoke. The tow bars were stuck into the underneath of the car, he drove the tow truck forward to try and disconnect it, that didn't work, so he put the e-brake on, used a jack to raise the car, then drove the tow truck forward and got them unattached.

A few days later my transmission stopped working, a repair shop found a crack in the casing of the transmission. Is it possible that the tow bars could have cracked it? The towing company says it isn't possible.

Thanks for your time


Answer
well I am familiar with most of the hills in the Portland area, and some can be tricky to even drive...

Ok, now if the vehicle was not running and it was rolling down the hill the brakes would work but not fully and properly and the steering would be affected.

Now from what you describe the towing company operator did fail to properly do the job in a safe damage free manner "in my mind" (not this is not a legal answer, just a opinion).

You did not mention the vehicle, so I can not tell if it was a front wheel drive, or rear wheel drive. That can mean a different answer as front wheel drives have the transmission partially in front of the front wheels... Rear wheel drives tend to have the transmission behind the font wheels..
But both of them would have the engine oil pan at or lower than the transmission in most cases...

Now from what I see, about a year ago this happened and it might be hard to do anything now, unless you try the small claims court.  

Now the tow company saying it is not possible is somewhat true, but I can not answer this really without all the facts...  There is a 50-50 chance that they might of caused the problem, but they could of not caused it either.