Dillon County Vehicle Impound Guide

Dillon Towing & Collision, on Highway 301 South, is a prominent participant in the SCHP Troop 5 wrecker rotation that handles DUI tows here, but there's no single lot, and calling around blindly to every yard in the phone book wastes hours a family doesn't have. The right move is calling the arresting agency's dispatch line and requesting the "Tow Log," which identifies exactly which private wrecker took the vehicle at the time of arrest. There's no public online database to check instead.

Getting the vehicle back runs into a strict ownership check almost immediately. If the arrested driver isn't the registered owner, the tow yard won't release the car to them, full stop. The actual owner has to show up in person with a valid photo ID and matching registration. If that owner is out of state, a real possibility on this stretch of I-95, they need a specific notarized power of attorney naming the vehicle by VIN, make, model, and year, and explicitly naming who's authorized to retrieve it. Without that document, the car sits accumulating fees no matter how urgent the situation.

A DUI arrest tied to a collision, an injury, or a companion felony charge like drugs or weapons triggers something worse: an administrative hold that keeps the vehicle locked down as evidence. While that hold is active, the towing company can't release the car or even let a family member retrieve personal items from inside it. Clearing that requires an attorney petitioning the Magistrate Court or the arresting agency's evidence custodian for a physical release form before the tow yard will do anything at all.

One real protection exists against getting overcharged. State regulations cap what a rotation wrecker can bill for a standard Class A tow, and companies aren't allowed to relabel a routine DUI tow as a "special operation" just to charge more. A company that tries it can be reported directly to SCHP Troop 5 headquarters in Florence, and the threat of losing a spot on the rotation list, a genuinely lucrative arrangement for these companies, tends to bring rogue operators back in line fast.

One practical upside to Dillon County's geography: Highway 301 South clusters the impound lot, the local DMV branch, and several bail bond offices along a single corridor, so families aren't crossing the rural county back and forth between stops.