46.40.050 Authority to remove and impound vehicles on public property—Procedure (RCW 46.90.330).
A. Members of the police department are authorized to remove and impound vehicles by means of towing or otherwise to the nearest garage or other place of safety or to a garage designated or maintained by the police department or otherwise maintained by the local authority, under any of the following circumstances:
1. When any vehicle is left unattended upon any bridge, viaduct, or causeway, or in any tunnel where such vehicle constitutes an obstruction to traffic;
2. When any vehicle upon a highway, including tunnels, bridges, or approaches, is so disabled as to constitute an obstruction to traffic or when the person or persons in charge of the vehicle are incapacitated to such an extent as to be unable to provide for its custody or removal and there is no other person present who, in the opinion of a police officer, may properly act as agent for such operator in the care of the operator’s vehicle;
3. When any vehicle is left unattended upon a highway and is so parked illegally as to constitute a definite hazard or obstruction to the normal movement of traffic;
4. When any vehicle is found in a tow-away zone;
5. When any vehicle operating on a highway is found to be defective in equipment in such manner that it may be considered unsafe;
6. When the operator of any vehicle is arrested and placed in custody and is not in condition to drive and the vehicle is not in a place of safety and there is no other person present who, in the opinion of a police officer, may properly act as agent for such operator to drive the vehicle to a place of safety.
B. Members of the police department are authorized to remove and impound any abandoned vehicle, automobile hulk or abandoned junk motor vehicle found on a highway by means of towing or otherwise to the nearest garage or other place of safety or to a garage designated or maintained by the police department or otherwise maintained by the local authority.
C. Whenever an officer removes and impounds a vehicle from a highway as authorized in subsection A of this section, the officer shall as soon as practicable give or cause personal notice to be given in writing to the owner of such vehicle, if any record exists of the registered or legal owner in the records of the authority last licensing such vehicle, of the fact of such removal and the reasons therefor and of the place to which such vehicle is stored in a public garage, a copy of such notice shall be given to the proprietor of such garage.
D. Whenever an officer removes and impounds a vehicle from a highway under subsection A of this section and does not know and is not able to ascertain the name of the owner, or for any other reason is unable to give the notice to the owner as hereinbefore provided, and in the event the vehicle is not returned to the owner within a period of three days, then and in that event, the officer shall immediately send or cause to be sent written report of such removal by mail to the department and shall file a copy of such notice with the proprietor of any garage in which the vehicle may be stored. Such notice shall include a complete description of the vehicle, the date, time, and place from which removed, the reasons for such removal, and name of the garage or place where the vehicle is stored.
E. Any costs incurred in the removal and storage of an impounded vehicle shall be a lien upon the vehicle. All towing and storage charges on each vehicle impounded shall be paid by the owner or the owner’s agent if the vehicle is redeemed. In the case of abandoned vehicles, all costs of removal and storage shall be paid by the owner or the owner’s agent if the vehicle is redeemed, but if not redeemed, such costs shall be received from the proceeds of sale.
F. The impounding of a vehicle shall not preclude charging the violator with any violation of the law on account of which such vehicle was impounded.
G. Either a registered or legal owner may claim an impounded vehicle by payment of all charges that have accrued to the time of reclamation, unless the vehicle is being held at the direction of a law enforcement agency as evidence of a crime. If the vehicle was impounded at the direction of a law enforcement agency, the person in possession of the vehicle prior to the time of reclamation shall notify such agency of the fact that the vehicle has been claimed, and by whom. (Ord. 869-82 § 5, 1982.)