Police Tow Away Autos Violating Parking Laws

Cambridge police early this morning began a new towing campaign to crack down on out-of-state motorists who are illegally parking cars in the Harvard Square area. Hundreds of parking tags were issued by the local police Friday, Saturday and Sunday mornings in an effort to identify the violators.

This new move by the Traffic Division is aimed at all those people who have failed to appear in court after receiving a notice of violation according to Traffic Division Captain Edward J. Maher.

May Be Prosecuted

Massachusetts car owners may be prosecuted by merely turning their tickets over to the Third District Court. If these drivers fail to report to court after they receive summonses, they may be dealt with by the Registrar of Motor Vehicles who can suspend their licenses.

In the case of out-of-state cars the owner can not be sought by the Court or police until he appears with his ticket.

In order to meet this situation the Cambridge City Council passed an ordinance two years ago which states that if out-of-town violators did not answer to their tickets they would have their cars towed away.

"We have the registration numbers of students who've torn up their tickets, and when our men find their cars, we'll tow them away." Maher believed this type of action would bring the situation under control quickly, but he added that "we'll keep it up indefinitely, or at least until the violations stop."

Lowell House Fire

Reasons for the sudden resurgence of car-towing were not available. Although the fire trucks had some difficulty in getting through the streets on the morning of the Lowell House fire, the fire department would not say whether or not they had lodged a formal complaint to the police. The department had earlier made a statement saying that parking did not interfere with their usual operations.