I totally disagree with calling this a "crash tax." It's not whatsoever.. only at-fault drivers are charged, and they deserve to be charged. I do believe that only out-of-town at-fault drivers should be charged, though.. citizens of the town/municipality already pay taxes for their police service.
If you're an at-fault driver, I believe you deserve to pay for your screwup. It's not much different from paying for property you damage with your car, and the rates they quoted in that article are NOT really that high. If an officer is on scene for an hour (the longest I've ever had to deal with processing paperwork after a wreck) you're paying $28. That's less than your insurance is going to increase, so be more careful next time!
Yes, I'd be a little pissed if I got charged for getting into a wreck out-of-town, but ultimately it's my fault. I've been in one accident where I was at fault (4-car pileup, yayyy), and there were multiple wrecks leading into the same intersection so the police were extremely busy. That slowed down the processing time severely.
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