Towing firm of gouging on Trucking Companies

The owner of a Detroit trucking firm, D. R. Logistics, is accusing a towing company of taking advantage of a tragic chain response crash on I-75 on Jan. 31 that claimed 3 lives after she received a bill for $10,250 from the company that tows for the Michigan State Police.

A sudden white-out caused a terrible chain reaction crash leaving 3 people dead and a tangled mess that closed the I-75 for hours. Among the trucks drawn in was one belonging a trucking company owned by Jaime Redmond and her husband, according to a 7 Action News report.

Our truck was able to come to a stop before he hit anyone and then everybody behind him just kind of slid into him basically. So we were at the front of the pack, Redmond said. She immediately sent her regular towing company, Byers Towing, to retrieve her truck.

However, when the Byers truck arrived, it was blocked from the scene by trucks from avenue and Trumbull, the towing company used by the state police. A state trooper told the Byers driver that Boulevard and Trumbull would be towing all and that he would have to leave. Redmond truck, completely loaded with freight, was towed to Boulevard and Trumbull lot and held quickly. 

The next morning, she sent Byers to retrieve her semi. It was loaded with freight that had to be delivering. We had no choice but to use Boulevard. And then we had no selection to get our truck out. And then we get this bill, said Redmond. Byers towing said they would have charged Redmond about $3,500, a third of what she actually paid.

Boulevard and Trumbull has a contract with the Michigan State Police giving them special towing rights on most of the freeways in the City of Detroit. According the state police, if you get into an accident on a city freeway, you can only use your own towing company if your vehicle is not blocking traffic. If traffic is blocked, you have to use Boulevard and Trumbull and you pay what they charge.

Redmond suspect there are other No happy customers from the Jan. 31 accident. There is no way that we could have been the only company that this happened to. There were several other semi trucks that were concerned. And how much money did this guy make off of it.

The 7 Action News Investigators are seeking other semi owners involved in the crash to resolve if they, too, feel they were overcharged for towing. The news station filed a Freedom of Information request asking Michigan State Police for names of other victims in this crash to see if any others had issues with their towing bills.