City to enforce wrecker licensing rules — no, really

Nearly two weeks after a speeding wrecker killed an elderly couple leaving a Bible study, the city has decided to tighten the rules governing how wrecker drivers are licensed under the Safe Clear program, Mayor Bill White announced yesterday.

Among the changes in the process is a more stringent appeals process for wrecker drivers who are denied licenses. A retired HPD assistant chief will now preside over appeals (a sergeant did so before), and documentation of the result of every appeal will have to be filed. It's all part of an effort to crack down on drivers who shouldn't have received licenses in the first place, but were able to slip through what seems to have been a lenient appeals process.

"People were just routinely being able to overturn the decision of police officers on appeal," said White, who called the appeals process flawed. "That's not what we intended."

Sixteen drivers have had their licenses suspended and dozens more will have to reapply for city licenses, the Chronicle reports. According to KTRK, the people formerly in charge of the appeals process weren't properly trained in procedure and didn't get any guidance when they were deciding whether to give licenses to drivers with recent felony convictions. "There were, in my mind and in the chief's mind and the city attorney's mind, flaws in the way that the program was administered," White said.

The deaths of Leon and Maureen Roberson on Oct. 18 put the city's towing program in the spotlight: Police say wrecker driver Sergio Gonzalez was going at least 90 mph down Wallisville Road — the speed limit is 45 — when he broadsided the Robersons' car, killing them instantly. Despite recent drug charges, Gonzalez had gotten a wrecker license from the city under appeal. (An investigation into the accident involving the Robersons is still under way, and Gonzalez hasn't been charged with anything.)

The new rules should improve the licensing process, Houston Professional Towing Association President Suzanne Poole said. "I think it's going to give it accountability and it's going to take away the discretion of a hearing officer," she told the Chronicle. Poole had complained about the lax appeals process late last year, but didn't get anywhere; White told the Chron that he initially discounted Poole as a critic of the city towing program, but now realizes she was right.