Disservice on wheels

It amounts to blackmail on roads and local traffic police ignore it.

A woman's car overturned in Beijing's Huairou district in September last year. Traffic police in the suburban area helped her reach a hospital in an ambulance. The traffic policeman on duty then called a breakdown van to tow her car. When she went to get her car later, the breakdown service company asked her to pay more than 5,000 yuan ($770) for towing it for just 40 kilometers. On inquiry, traffic police said that the company was the only designated service provider and she would have to dish out the money to get her car.

It is unusual for traffic police to say there is only one designated breakdown service company and not know how much it charges.