Tow-truck companies are bribing police officers to ensure they are first at accident scenes, The Star reported on Wednesday.
This is the finding of a report commissioned by Ekurhuleni’s police chief, Robert McBride.
The report discovered that some companies offer police free cellphones as an incentive to tip them off; tow-truck drivers who do not pay certain police bribes are often chased from scenes; and some police even set tow-truck drivers tariffs.
McBride told the newspaper he knows of instances in which vehicles have been towed with injured passengers still trapped inside.
”We are talking about lives at stake here. The public has a right to be protected against unscrupulous operators. As a metro, our duty is to care for the public and to have moral obligations towards our road users,” he said.
He now intends introducing a roster system for tow-truck drivers under which they will be assigned duty times and areas.
When there is an accident, metro police will call the scheduled tow-truck driver. — Sapa