People injured in rural auto accidents shouldn’t have to face financial wreckage caused by overzealous towing companies, Douglas County commissioners agreed Monday.

Without taking a formal vote, commissioners said they tentatively would support plans to overhaul the process now used by the Douglas County Sheriff’s Department to summon towing companies to accident scenes.

The current process, they said, leaves open the potential for companies to gouge customers who may not be in the proper condition or frame of mind to make an informed decision about which company to call.

Under the new process, sheriff’s deputies still would ask people involved in an accident which company they’d like to use. But the change would come if they didn’t express a preference.

Under the new plan, someone unsure about whom to call would get a printed list that includes all five Lawrence-area towing companies, their locations and fees for towing and vehicle storage. Sheriff’s deputies would give the person up to five minutes to make a choice before placing the call for help.

“The proposal is fair to the public, fair to the tow companies and appropriate for law enforcement and traffic control,” said Sheriff Rick Trapp, in a memo to commissioners.

The method would be a switch from the current process, which dispatches wreckers without regard to price. The county’s “no-preference” towing list, maintained at the county’s Emergency Communications Center, makes no mention of fees, and the five companies on the list are dispatched to accidents on a rotating basis to prevent one company from getting more business than another.

Such a rotation, commissioners said, can open the door to financial abuse.

“Some companies charge much higher fees and provide a lower level of service,” said Charles Jones, commission chairman. “How do we keep people from getting ripped off by companies that are charging exorbitant fees? …

“We just need to give them the power to make at least a somewhat informed decision.”

Commissioners and other county officials say they are reluctant to discuss particular cases of gouging — for fear of being dragged into court — but are confident that valid complaints do exist. One story making the rounds: that a motorcycle hauled away from a rural school generated a $380 bill.

Kevin Raasch, owner of TransMasters, said overhauling the system because of a few complaints wouldn’t make sense.

Oftentimes such complaints come from people with other problems, he said, such as not having insurance or not having their vehicles registered.

“How do you judge what is exorbitant?” said Raasch, who has owned his towing service since 1989. “Those people that have got a $200 car, and a $250 bill, they think you’re ripping them off.”

Any list that would be distributed to people likely would be unable to capture the true costs of a tow, Raasch said. He recalls being called in by authorities to yank a pickup out of Clinton Lake — and charging $700 to do it.

“There are a lot of variables,” he said.

The county’s new rules would affect only arrangements made by sheriff’s deputies, and therefore likely would involve incidents in unincorporated areas of the county. But the new process could apply if a deputy worked an accident in Lawrence, Lt. Don Crowe said.

Either way, he said, it would give the department more control about how much companies charge, although there remains some question about what that control would entail.

Jones suggested that numerous complaints could trigger removal of a company’s name from the county’s list, but Crowe hedged on whether such a move would be possible.

“If there are several complaints, they will be investigated,” Crowe told commissioners. “(But) we cannot make them adhere to the suggested prices on the list.”

Deputies call for about 250 tows a year, Crowe said, which compares with up to 1,500 a year arranged by Lawrence Police. Police rely on a rotation list for dispatching wreckers to people unwilling to choose a towing company.

Commissioners set no deadline for bringing forward a formal plan.