People are losing their property over Washington’s poorly written law

After a Tukwila woman was injured in a scooter crash, the company that towed it away sold it out from under her. It happened while she lay in a hospital bed on a ventilator. And it was all legal. Now a Washington state representative is working to change the law that allowed it to happen.

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After her May 20 scooter accident at 12th Avenue and South Jackson Street while en route to her Seattle nursing job, Denise Chew was initially unconscious, then hospitalized and on a ventilator for days. She spent nearly a week at Harborview Medical Center, KOMO News reports. There is some brain trauma.

KIRO Radio’s Jason Rantz Show pointed the story out to Mark Harmsworth, a Republican state representative from Mill Creek.

“It seems ludicrous that state law right now requires a towing company to go through this process and sell it if they don’t get a hold of the registered owner,” Harmsworth said.

“I did some digging around and it’s accurate,” he told Rantz. “The state law has certain requirements and it’s non-negotiable.”

In Chew’s case, her scooter was towed from the scene — it was new and she had it just a few weeks. Without Chew present to claim the scooter, the towing company sold it. It sent two notices — to the owner in the hospital and on a ventilator — about its intent to sell the vehicle. This is required by law. Despite friends’ efforts to get the scooter for her, only the registered owner could do anything to get it back. Chew was unable to even sign paperwork.

“The law wasn’t purposefully written to screw people out of their property,” Rantz said. “I just don’t think it was well thought out.”

After putting in a few calls to the state’s department of licensing, and towing associations, Harmsworth and his staff are putting together a legislative fix. There are liability issues to consider, but he aims for the law to allow a third party to pay for towing and storage fees for a towed vehicle — even a scooter. And, hopefully, another fix could allow for certain people to pick up a vehicle from a lot.

“The root issue with state law is that it’s very prescriptive on what should happen around a situation like this and there’s no flexibility,” Harmsworth said.

It’s not the state representative’s first time dealing with Washington’s automobile woes. He gained publicity through his efforts to change the newly adopted I-405 express toll lanes.

A bill for the towing issue is currently being drafted and put through the legal ringer. Once it is finished, Harmsworth is going to shop it around state Republicans and Democrats to get support for it.

“I don’t see that being a huge problem with this,” he said.

By next January — the next session — Harmsworth hopes to have the bill running through the process in Olympia and on its way to becoming law.

As for Chew, she remains out one scooter. Her friends started a GoFundMe page to raise money for her to help cover costs incurred during her hospitalization.

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