Tow-Truck Drivers Find Ways Around Fire Dept. Protocol

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Within the past year, in the wake of several violent incidents, the Philadelphia Police Department changed their protocol for dispatching tow trucks to accident scenes to prevent multiple operators from arriving and fighting over who will tow the vehicle. But those rogue tow truck operators found a way around this.

Fire Commissioner Lloyd Ayers says these tow truck drivers are now listening to the fire radio band and literally tailgating the responding engine or ladder to the scene and once there interfere with fire fighters trying to get victims out of the vehicles.

"You have that are not allowing you to do your job. Those civilians who may be entrapped and seriously injured...you don't need anyone else there except the people giving the aid...

But he says a solution is near, "We're in the process now of putting M.D.T.'s in each and every engine and ladder. That way, when a dispatch like that goes out, the companies that are the first to respond will be the first that will know." 

M.D.T.'s are Mobile Data Terminals that will provide onscreen or printed information to first responders, but it will take some time to outfit every Engine and Ladder in the city.

Reported by Michelle Durham, KYW Newsradio