A person holding or storing an abandoned vehicle, holding or storing a vehicle towed at the request of the vehicle’s operator, owner or owner’s agent or holding or storing a vehicle stored at the request of a law enforcement officer may hold the vehicle and all its accessories, contents and equipment, not including the personal effects of the registered owner, until reasonable towing and storage charges of the person holding or storing the vehicle are paid, except that a person may not hold the perishable cargo of a commercial motor vehicle, as defined in Title 49 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Part 390.5, as amended, when the perishable cargo being transported in interstate or intrastate commerce is not owned by the motor carrier or driver of the commercial motor vehicle being held and the person holding or storing the towed vehicle is presented with evidence of insurance, as defined in section 1551, covering the commercial motor vehicle and the vehicle’s cargo. For purposes of this paragraph, “perishable cargo” means cargo of a commercial motor vehicle that is subject to spoilage or decay or is marked with an expiration date. The owner of the vehicle shall maintain, at a minimum, the amounts of motor vehicle financial responsibility in accordance with section 1605?B to pay the reasonable towing and storage charges of the person holding or storing the vehicle. [PL 2023, c. 395, Pt. A, §3 (AMD).]

For purposes of this section, “personal effects” includes medications, medical equipment, clothing, mail, child restraint systems and similar items. Except for child restraint systems, items attached to the vehicle and business equipment, machinery and tools are not considered personal effects. For the purposes of this section, “child restraint system” has the same meaning as in section 2081, subsection 1, paragraph A?2. [PL 2019, c. 299, §1 (AMD).]