Free Amy E’s Car
By: Patrick O’Herffernan
Elsewhere in Laguna are the details of the towing and impounding of a local Expat’s car after a minor non-injury accident. The story chronicles a bizarre 10-month journey through a bureaucratic hall of mirrors at the Jalisco Ministerio Público that is still not over.
The Chapala cop who mysteriously arrived at the accident scene while the parties were working out a deal did not have to tow Amy E’s car. Why he towed the car we won’t know (he works for another agency now), but that unnecessary action set off a chain of events that , to my mind, has laid bare the worst – and the best – in the Mexican government.
The system of initiating a tow by a local cop, the actual towing by a private company to a lot regulated by the State, and release of the car in the hands of a State Agency whose priorities are elsewhere, all together are a recipe for disaster. Amy E. is going through this disaster now. The agency doesn’t give a damn about the citizens, the staff is incompetent (at least in this case) and the local government that is closest to the people is powerless.
This has to change. State law should be changed to devolve the authority for releasing towed cars to a local agency. Police at every level should not be allowed to tow cars that are drivable unless they were involved in a crime or an injury. And cars not involved in a crime or an injury accident should be released to the owners within two weeks by the impound lot, whether or not the government has generated the needed documents.
I know – good luck with that. But there is a small silver lining to this cloud – the responsiveness of local officials. Amy E. was able to contact local officials who, rather than saying hers was a state problem, attempted to intervene on her behalf, spending considerable time in the process. While the intervention failed, it is heartening to see that the government closest to the people – the municipality – listens to them.
The bottom line here; Mexicans will tell you if you are in an accident and no one is hurt, leave. Don’t leave your car at the scene for a cop to tow while you work out a deal with the other driver, they say. I support a change in the organic law controlling the Ministerio Público; that will make life a lot easier on everyone. In the meantime. Watch this space to help Free Amy E’s car.
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