[Ord. 1098, 7/10/1995, § 901; as amended by Ord.
1104, 5/13/1996, § 1]
Any owner of any vehicle or vehicles having been issued a total
of three or more unpaid citations or other process, within an eighteen-month
period, charging that a vehicle or vehicles was parked, stopped or
standing in violation of any [law] of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
or the ordinance of the Borough of Bristol shall be deemed a public
nuisance. The Police Department or other authorized agent of the Borough
of Bristol are hereby authorized to remove, or cause to be removed,
any vehicle or vehicles owned by the habitual violator which was subject
of an unpaid citation. The cost of impoundment and storage shall be
bourne solely by the habitual violator. The Police or authorized authority
shall have the power to remove the vehicle by either private or governmental
equipment to an approved storage site.
[Ord. 1098, 7/10/1995, § 902]
Whenever the Police Department has impounded a vehicle described
above, a notice of such removal and the storage place of such vehicle
shall be mailed to the last registered owner of such vehicle, if the
name and address of such owner can be ascertained with reasonable
diligence. Such notice shall state that if the owner fails to reclaim
such vehicle within 30 days from the date of mailing, title to such
vehicle will vest in the Borough of Bristol and such vehicle will
be sold at public auction to be held not sooner than 30 days after
the expiration of the thirty-day period contained in said notice.
[Ord. 1098, 7/10/1995, § 903]
The registered owner of a vehicle having against it three or
more outstanding summonses shall be presumed to be the owner at the
time the summonses were in fact issued and shall be severally responsible
for the offense and the impoundment, except where the use of the vehicle
was secured by the operator without the owner's consent.
[Ord. 1098, 7/10/1995, § 904]
It shall be the duty of the Police Department to safely keep
any impounded vehicle until such vehicle shall have been repossessed
by the owner or person legally entitled to possession thereof or otherwise
disposed of as provided in this Part. The Police Department shall
cause to be kept an accurate record of the description of such vehicle,
including the name of the officer from whom such a vehicle was received,
the officer employed to tow or have delivered the same to said pound
or authorized garage, the date and time when received, the place where
found, seized or taken possession of, the make and color of the car,
style or body, kind of power, motor number, serial number, number
of cylinders, year built, state license number, if any, equipment
and general description of condition, the name and address of the
person redeeming said vehicle, the date of redemption, and the manner
and date of disposal of said vehicle in case the same shall not be
redeemed, together with cost of outstanding summonses and the towing
and storage charges. The record shall be in the form prescribed by
the Chief of Police.
[Ord. 1098, 7/10/1995, § 905]
Vehicles impounded pursuant to this Part will be released to
their lawful owner (or person entitled to possession) upon showing
adequate evidence of a right to its possession and paying the payment
of all accrued fines and costs for each outstanding unpaid summons,
or depositing of the collateral required for his appearance in the
District Court of Common Pleas to answer for each violation for which
there is an outstanding or otherwise unsettled traffic violation notice
or warrant and, in addition thereto, the charges for towing and storage.
The release should be signed by an authorized officer.
[Ord. 1098, 7/10/1995, § 906]
The sale or disposal of any vehicle impounded under this Part
shall be conducted in accordance with the provisions of the Pennsylvania
Motor Vehicle Code, § 7304 et seq., as amended.
