What to do if your car or bike gets towed?

Say you are busy street-shopping in that crowded area of your city. You come back after two hours to find out your car is towed (A word you wouldn’t want to use for describing your vehicle). And, if this dreaded incident is in a metro city, wish yourself good luck.

Everyone has been through this situation and ideally the first thing to know should be how not to get your vehicle towed. Here are some quick pointers:

Things not to do

As per law, you should not park your vehicle:

• So it causes or is likely to cause danger, obstruction or undue inconvenience to other road users
• At or near a road crossing
• Obstructing another parked vehicle or on wrong side of the road
• On a footpath
• Far away from the edge of the footpath
• Near a traffic light or pedestrian crossing
• Near a bus stop, school/ hospital entrance, blocking traffic sign or premises entrance or a fire hydrant.
• Unattended for more than 10 hours at a public place so that it blocks the flow of traffic.
• In a No Parking Zone

Firstly, avoid any of the above to keep your vehicle from getting towed. Secondly, if you have not broken any of the above rules and your car has been towed, you can quote them in your defence.

The main reason you should be careful of getting towed by RTO is that there have been cases where unintentional damage was done to the towed vehicles. The reparation of damages will be costlier than the parking fine. Though you can claim compensation, these damages will depreciate the value of your vehicle and affect your insurance rates too.

If this situation is very likely to happen to you, there is an additional car insurance cover for your insurance policy. The Collision Coverage for your car covers towing damages in general. To know more about this cover you can ask the Turtlemint chatbot, consult us at support@turtlemint.com or call us at 1800-266-0101

Finally, if your car or bike gets towed, here’s what you do:

Things to do

• Go to the nearest RTO office or towing grounds immediately.

Here are the RTO addresses and helpline numbers of major cities for you to contact your RTO in case of a towing –

(Source: https://blog.karconnect.com/contact-details-rto-offices-major-cities/)

• Remember, RTO has the right to auction your vehicle if you don’t claim it.
• Enquire about your car/bike and the offence (if not clear to you already).
• Check if your there are any damages. If so, you can claim compensation from the towing agency.
• Pay the respective fine.

In any case, always park like you shouldn’t have the need to get towed in the first place.