Chicago Tow Truck Accident Attorney

Tow truck operators work in conditions that almost guarantee an accident will eventually happen — narrow shoulders along the Dan Ryan and other expressways, active travel lanes during in-lane recovery, winter nights on unlit rural interstates, and parking lots crowded with pedestrians. The risk profile combines everything dangerous about commercial trucking with the added hazards of recovery work and the often-unsecured vehicle being hauled.

Illinois has some of the strongest roadside-worker protection laws in the country. When a distracted or impaired driver fails to move over and strikes a tow operator, those protections fuel the civil case. But tow operators also owe heightened duties of care when they themselves are in motion, on a shoulder, or lifting a vehicle in active traffic.

• Move Over Law violations — drivers passing at highway speed without slowing down or changing lanes.
• Improper scene setup — inadequate flares, cones, or warning flashers at a recovery scene.
• Negligent hookup — safety chains omitted, winches underrated, or the towed vehicle’s transmission left in gear.
• Overloaded wreckers — a light-duty wrecker attempting to tow a heavy-duty vehicle it is not rated for.
• Operator fatigue — many tow operators work 14+ hour shifts, especially in the overnight roadside-assistance market.
• Distracted or impaired tow driving — dispatch apps, phones, and long stretches of lonely highway.
• Runaway towed vehicles — towed cars breaking free mid-tow and becoming an unguided projectile.

Illinois’ Move Over Law — 625 ILCS 5/11-907, often called Scott’s Law after an Illinois State Police trooper killed in 2000 — requires drivers approaching stationary emergency or maintenance vehicles displaying flashing lights to change lanes if it is safe to do so, and in any event slow down to a reasonable speed. Tow trucks with flashers activated are protected vehicles under the statute.

Violation is negligence per se in Illinois, and recent amendments have substantially increased both criminal penalties and civil exposure. When a passing motorist strikes a tow operator on the shoulder, the civil case is built on a strong statutory foundation that is hard to defeat.

When a towed vehicle breaks loose mid-transport, the physics are unforgiving. Highway speeds turn a small sedan into a multi-ton projectile with no driver and no brakes. These cases almost always come back to negligent hookup: missing safety chains, an underrated tie-down strap, an improperly locked wheel-lift, or a failure to engage the parking brake before flatbed transport. We retain tow-industry experts to reconstruct the hookup and identify the specific failure.

Most tow-truck cases involve multiple defendants. The tow-truck driver bears direct responsibility. The tow company can be liable for negligent hiring, training, and supervision as well as vicariously for the driver’s negligence. The company that ordered the tow — a large auto club, an insurance carrier, a municipal police department on an involuntary tow — can be liable when it exercises meaningful control over the dispatch. Vehicle and equipment manufacturers are co-defendants where equipment failure contributed. For shoulder and roadside incidents, the passing motorist and their insurance carrier are the primary defendants.

Tow truck evidence disappears fast. In the first 72 hours we issue spoliation letters to the tow company, subpoena dispatch records, pull the tow operator’s driving history and prior complaints, secure any dashcam or surveillance footage, and coordinate an independent inspection of the tow truck, winch, and rigging equipment before it can be put back in service.

All work is on contingency. No fee unless we recover for you.