Chapter 11.36
IMPOUNDING*

Sections:

11.36.010 Authority to impound vehicles.

11.36.020 Notice of impounding.

* For statutory provisions authorizing city ordinances for disposition of abandoned vehicles, see RCW 46.52.116.

11.36.010 Authority to impound vehicles.

Members of the police department are authorized to remove a vehicle from a street or highway to the nearest garage or other place of safety or to a garage designated or maintained by the police department or otherwise maintained by this city, under the circumstances enumerated as follows:

A.  When any vehicle is left unattended upon any bridge, viaduct, or causeway, where such vehicle constitutes an obstruction to traffic;

B.  When a vehicle upon a highway or street, including 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 by reason of physical injury incapacitated to such an extent as to be unable to provide for its custody or removal;

C.  When any vehicle is left unattended upon a street and is so parked illegally as to constitute a definite hazard or obstruction to the normal movement of traffic. (Prior code § 11.36.010)

11.36.020 Notice of impounding.

Whenever an officer removes a vehicle from a street as authorized in Section 11.36.010, he shall report the abandoned vehicle to the chief of the Washington State Patrol, and if the officer knows or is able to ascertain from the registration records in the vehicle the name and address of the registered and legal owner thereof, such officer shall immediately give or cause personal notice to be given in writing to such owner, if any record exists of the registered or legal owner in the state of Washington, of the fact of such removal and the reasons therefor and of the place to which such vehicle has been removed. The abandoned vehicle shall be taken into the custody of the sheriff of the county where it has been abandoned, and stored. In the event any such vehicle is stored in a public garage, a copy of such notice shall be given to the proprietor of such garage. (Prior code § 11.36.020)