Removal of haz-mat by towing service (Title 39:4-56.8.)

[BHFF22]

Title 39:4-56.8. Removal of debris by towing service

a. As used in this act:

(1) "Public entity" means the State, and any county, municipality, district, or political subdivision and any authority, agency, board or body thereof.

(2) "Public road or highway" means every street, road or highway open to the use of the public for the purpose of vehicular travel.

(3) "Private entity" means any entity other than a public entity with jurisdiction over a road or highway in the State open to the use of the public.

b. Any towing service under contract to a public or private entity to tow disabled motor vehicles which, after being called upon to remove a disabled motor vehicle, fails to remove from public roads or highways any motor vehicle debris or material in the area surrounding that vehicle shall be subject to a fine of not less than $25.00 nor more than $50.00 if the debris or material is likely to cause injury to a person operating a motor vehicle or substantial damage to another motor vehicle. A towing service shall not be required to remove any debris or material which may be hazardous such as oil, gasoline, kerosene or other petroleum or chemical products, or debris or material which the service is not equipped to remove.
Adopted. L. 1983, c. 271, §1.

[DrParasite]

yeah, so???

it basicly says if the towing company doesn't have the neccessary tools to remove the hazardous substances, then they don't have to.

In that case, PD should call the FD, and they will deal with the hazardous substance, because they carry the proper tools to deal with the situation.

what part of this is unclear?

[BHFF22]

Ive been at several accident's recently at one the county haz-mat rep made the towing company clean all the haz-mat up cause he beleives its there responciblity and another where a member was putting absorbent on a spill and his capt told him to stop cause the towing company should be doing it

[DrParasite]

not sure how berkley heights operates, but middlesex county hazmat does the following:

a representative in an equiped pick up truck is sent first to all hazmat requests.

if it sounds like a big situation, a full team will respond with 4 peices of apparatus, including a heavy rescue type vehicle with a whole lot of stuff.

once they get on scene, they will stablize the situation, ie, prevent it from getting worse.

once the stablization is done, they will have the owner of the situation (truck company owner, homeowner, etc) contact a commercial company to eliminate the threat. if the owner doesn't want to, County Hazmat will clean it up and charge the owner 3 times the going rate for the job.

that being said, if county hazmat is called out for a motor vehicle accident, then I would imagine it would be serious enough to have either hazmat or the FD clean up whatever was leaking.

but the bottom line is, who care who does it as long as it gets done?