« Kerrey Tries Talking Sense To Kerry (And Other Democrats) On Social Security. | WILLisms.com | True Orange »

The First Casualty of Mayor Bill White's "Safe Clear" Towing Program.

When Bill White, a prominent Democrat, former chairman of the state party, first became Mayor of Houston, Texas, in 2003, he was the city's Golden Boy. A media darling, he spearheaded efforts to fix the bloated city employee pension system that endeared him even to Republicans. Speculation that he would run for statewide office spread like wildfire in political circles, and frankly, given his political acumen, the speculation was warranted. He seemed like a pro-growth fiscal conservative, if only because the comparison point was his inept and liberal predecessor Lee Brown.

Mayor White frittered away whatever political capital he had the day he announced his "Safe Clear" program, essentially a city-run towing racket. People hate tow trucks, for they resemble those vile creatures of the sky, the vultures, lurking, ready to swoop down on unsuspecting, vulnerable prey. Put tow trucks together with a government program, and you have a guaranteed loser.

Basically, the "Safe Clear" program pronounced that any vehicle stranded on Houston's freeways would receive a mandatory tow, within minutes, from a city-approved tow truck. The aim: to eliminate rubbernecking, ease traffic congestion, and keep traffic flowing. It made some sense, considering the lost productivity Houstonians endure sitting in traffic.

The Houston Chronicle goes over the rules:

"• How does it work? Police get a report of a stranded motorist, authorize a tow in person or by phone from Houston TranStar, and call a tow truck from a company assigned to that segment of freeway. A tow truck driver who spots the problem first will call police for permission to tow.

• Where does it apply?
Freeways — not tollways or frontage roads — in the city of Houston only. The motorist may designate where the vehicle is to be towed.

• What does it cost?
$75 for the first five miles, $1.50 for each additional mile. Storage if applicable is $48 for the first day, $15 for each additional day.

• Is my consent required?
No, but an independent tow will probably cost more. [WILLisms.com: No, it really won't, particularly if you have a roadside assistance plan through AAA or another service.]

• Do I get six minutes to fix the problem before they hook up my car?
No. The company assigned to that location does have six minutes to get a tow truck there after being called. If they're late, or if the disabled vehicle poses a safety hazard, police may assign the tow to others and Safe Clear fees still apply.

• What if I have towing coverage from AAA?
AAA will reimburse towing costs in amounts that vary with the member's policy [WILLisms.com: In other words, the "Safe Clear" tow is likely not fully covered by AAA.], but will not pay vehicle impoundment or storage fees under Safe Clear. See details at www.aaa-texas.com.

• How do I pay?
Cash, credit card or personal check at the scene.

• What if I'm broke?
After the car is towed to a city-approved storage lot, charges mount daily and the vehicle may be sold at auction after 61 days.

• How do I get myself off the freeway? What if I have small children or a disabled person in my vehicle?
If you can't ride in the tow truck, police will take you to a safe place. Police have child safety seats that fit into patrol cars. 'We don't want anybody standing on the side of the freeway,' says HPD Lt. Lori Bender."

Clearly, there are just an amazing array of problems inherent in the program's design. One can just imagine the sticky situations the program poses, such as an angry and suspicious motorist, who may have never heard of the program, assaulting an overzealous wrecker-driver. Imagine knowing nothing about the program, when, within minutes and out of nowhere, a tow truck hooks your car up and starts to drive away. One could easily assume the tow truck driver is actually a sophisticated thief. Popping a cap in the tow truck driver would not be all that far-fetched for some people in that situation.

The plan, for many reasons, was immediately and intensely unpopular with influential Houstonians, so Bill White went back to the drawing board, intent on saving his program, focused on saving face. Citing the potential unfairness to the poor, White announced tweaks to the program's design.

Houston City Council member Sekula-Gibbs commented on White's reforms in a Houston Chronicle op-ed:

“Mayor Bill White has proposed a way to fix the Safe Clear Program. If approved by Houston City Council, the mayor says wreckers would provide free tows for short distances if the stalled car is not in a lane of traffic. But these tows are not really free. The mayor says the city would reimburse the wreckers. He wants to use city revenue–your tax dollars-to put a compassionate spin on a flawed policy he created. That is absolutely unacceptable. This is just a Band-Aid. It's nothing more than socialized towing.”

One can only imagine the price tag for the subsidized towing each year. White has said the reimbursed towing would cost the city about $300,000 a year, but Anne O'Ryan of the Texas AAA believes the cost would be more than $600,000 a year. WILLisms.com understands these figures mean the program, being a government boondoggle, would likely cost at least 2 or 3 million dollars each year.

The City of Houston licenses roughly 250 drivers under the program, with 11 towing companies receiving exclusive rights to tow vehicles, at will, from freeways. Tow-truck drivers who are not part of the Safe Clear program can be fined $750 if they tow vehicles from one of Houston's freeways.

The program elicited vocal opposition from LULAC (League of United Latin American Citizens), as well as the Houston Professional Towing Association, which together "claim to have collected 20,000 signatures from people who say the ordinance unfairly hurts low-income drivers and small wrecker companies," the Houston Chronicle reported last week.

The program hit even more trouble when Houston CBS affiliate KHOU reported that 32 of the wrecker drivers licensed by the city had criminal records. Those drivers were subsequently suspended, but their involvement in the program raised significant questions about the program's safety.

Additionally, WILLisms.com has unscientifically tracked the congestion levels on Houston's freeways over the past few weeks and concluded that the program does not even relieve traffic, thus in its primary mission, it has failed.

Monday night, the Safe Clear took its first casualty, the Houston Chronicle reports [Because the Houston Chronicle is awful at archiving articles, WILLisms.com will reproduce the entire article here for posterity]:

"Moments after a Safe Clear tow truck pulled up to her disabled van Monday night, a stranded motorist was hit by several cars as she attempted to run across the East Freeway.

The victim, whose identity had not been determined, was running across the westbound lanes of Interstate 10 between Holland and Mercury when she was killed about 7 p.m.

Houston resident Sam Hewitt said the woman 'just appeared' in front of him on the freeway.

He said she flew into his lane after being struck by another vehicle.

'I hit my brake and fishtailed. I think I clipped her,' said Hewitt, still shaken by the incident. 'I don't know how many people ran over her.'

Houston police said the woman first pulled her van to the left shoulder of eastbound I-10, then successfully crossed over the westbound lanes. A wrecker participating in the city's Safe Clear towing program then pulled up to the van.

The woman then ran back across the freeway toward her van but was hit by several vehicles, said Sgt. David Crain.

Police said it wasn't clear why she chose to risk running back through the speeding traffic.

'Whether it was to let the wrecker know that she was taking care of (the breakdown) or to further seek that wrecker's assistance, we just don't know,' Crain said.

Crain said Mayor Bill White — the architect of the controversial towing program — was informed of the death.

'We grieve for the family of this victim,' Crain said. 'We just ask that people stay with their vehicles when they break down or become stranded.'

He said the central reason behind the Safe Clear program is to reduce the number of motorists injured and killed on Houston's freeways.

'This is a perfect example of why we want that program to succeed,' he said.

Crain didn't know whether the woman was attempting to beat the six-minute time limit for wreckers to arrive at a disabled vehicle when she was fatally struck. He said that section of the program was not meant to apply to the public, saying they should remain with their vehicle regardless.

'The six minutes is a performance standard for these wreckers to get to the people and safely get them off the freeway,' Crain said."

WILLisms.com certainly does not recommend darting across traffic to anyone, and the woman must assume some level of personal responsibility for her misguided and tragic action, but it seems pretty clear the Safe Clear program, less than a month after its inception, at least indirectly, led to the death of a motorist.

The Houston Chronicle article above omits out some eye-witness statements WILLisms.com observed on KHOU's late evening newscast. From the comments of the witnesses, it seems clear that she acted without lucid thought, responding reflexively to a wrecker towing her van without her consent. Witnesses said she had retrieved a can of gas, likely because her car was merely out of fuel, an easy fix. When she saw the truck swoop in on her vehicle, she likely wanted to prove to the driver that she did not need the tow. Her heart must have raced, her body filled with adrenaline, perhaps overwhelmed with anger and desperation. Failing to properly estimate the speed of traffic, her mind clouded by emotion, she made a run for it.

Maybe she knew about the rules of the Safe Clear program and wanted to beat the clock. Maybe she had never heard of the program and was simply trying to protect her property from what she believed was some kind of underhanded tow-truck scam. Maybe she simply that knew she could not afford the tow, especially when all her car needed was a little bit of unleaded gasoline to get it running again.

Whatever the reason for her calamitous and ill-fated action, it is clear that Bill White's Safe Clear program is at least partially responsible; this is not to say that Mayor White is personally responsible, nor should he feel guilty for Monday's tragic death. However, if he fails to rescind the program, he will have to answer some tough questions when these incidents occur in the future. This kind of heartbreaking event is precisely what one would imagine happening on a regular basis: people acting irrationally, lashing out at the predatory tow trucks, making poor choices based on frustration. For this and many other reasons, for the safety of Houston freeway drivers and fiscal sanity of the City of Houston, the program must be scrapped immediately.

From a purely political standpoint, Mayor White should not stick with such an unpopular program. He likely wants to see it succeed, because if the program is scrapped, it will appear to be a political defeat. The mayor should not think that way; this program, if he stubbornly clings to it much longer, will be the ruin of his political career. WILLisms.com has this bit of advice for Mayor White:

Rip it off like a band-aid. Just be done with it. We'll all pretend the Safe Clear program never happened.

The City Council takes up the issue again soon, and WILLisms.com will follow the story, so stay tuned.

UPDATE: bloghouston.net has more on this story:

"After a month of $AFEclear, we now know that its funding mechanism was built on unfair assumptions that nonetheless amounted to yet another 'revenue stream' for Mayor White, that wrecker drivers with criminal records have been a part of it (despite assurances to the contrary from the mayor's office), and that misunderstanding over the six-minute rule and fear of losing her vehicle have now contributed to some extent to a woman's death. And those are just the major problems.

There is no shame in admitting a mistake, shelving the program, and coming back in six months with a better program (say, an expanded and improved MAP). There is shame in perpetuating this mistake, even if it did create a $1 million 'new revenue stream' for the city."

Also, bloghouston notes:

"Initial news reports misreported the gender of the victim. Updates indicate that the motorist who was killed was a 72-year-old man, Lawrence Kahng. Our condolences go out to the family."

UPDATE TWO, from bloghouston.net:

"Another report indicates that Kahng was 77."

The initial reporting on this story has clearly been spotty, so this will be the last update for now, until the facts of the story stabilize; WILLisms.com will continue to follow the Safe Clear program, so stay tuned.

Posted by Will Franklin · 1 February 2005 07:55 AM

Comments

Posted by: RzK at February 1, 2005 05:00 PM