Assembly Bill No. 394–Assemblymen Goldwater
and Chowning

 

CHAPTER..........

 

AN ACT relating to traffic laws; revising the provisions governing the removal by a police officer of a vehicle or part of a vehicle from a highway to a garage or other place of safekeeping; and providing other matters properly relating thereto.

 

THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEVADA, REPRESENTED IN

SENATE AND ASSEMBLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

 

    Section 1. NRS 484.397 is hereby amended to read as follows:

    484.397  1.  Whenever any police officer finds a vehicle

 standing upon a highway in violation of any of the provisions of

 this chapter, the officer may move the vehicle, or require the driver

 or person in charge of the vehicle to move it, to a position off the

 paved, improved or main-traveled part of the highway.

    2.  Whenever any police officer finds a vehicle unattended or

 disabled upon any highway, bridge or causeway, or in any tunnel,

 where the vehicle constitutes an obstruction to traffic or interferes

 with the normal flow of traffic, the officer may provide for the

 immediate removal of the vehicle.

    3.  Any police officer may , subject to the requirements of

 subsection 4, remove any vehicle or part of a vehicle found on the

 highway, or cause it to be removed, to [the nearest] a garage or

 other place of safekeeping if:

    (a) The vehicle has been involved in an accident and is so

 disabled that its normal operation is impossible or impractical and

 the person or persons in charge of the vehicle are incapacitated by

 reason of physical injury or other reason to such an extent as to be

 unable to provide for its removal or custody, or are not in the

 immediate vicinity of the disabled vehicle;

    (b) The person driving or in actual physical control of the

 vehicle is arrested for any alleged offense for which the officer is

 required by law to take the person arrested before a proper

 magistrate without unnecessary delay; or

    (c) The person in charge of the vehicle is unable to provide for

 its custody or removal within:

        (1) Twenty-four hours after abandoning the vehicle on any

 freeway, United States highway or other primary arterial highway.

        (2) Seventy-two hours after abandoning the vehicle on any

 other highway.

    4.  Unless a different course of action is necessary to preserve

 evidence of a criminal offense, a police officer who wishes to have

 a vehicle or part of a vehicle removed from a highway pursuant to

subsection 3 shall, in accordance with any applicable protocol

such as a rotational schedule regarding the selection and use of

 towing services, cause the vehicle or part of a vehicle to be

 removed by a tow car operator. The tow car operator shall, to the

 extent practicable and using the shortest and most direct route,

 remove the vehicle or part of a vehicle to his garage unless

 directed otherwise by the police officer. The tow car operator is

 liable for any loss of or damage to the vehicle or its contents that

 occurs while the vehicle is in his possession or control.

 

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