The Town of Paris Considers Billing for Car Accidents

So what do you think about this? Officials in the town of Paris, Maine are considering a proposal to start billing for car accidents that require a response from the fire department.

In other words, if you are traveling through Paris and have a car accident, and the fire department is called (which they usually are) the town, according to their proposal, will charge you for the department coming to the scene of an accident. The typical fee for the fire department to respond to an accident would be $500 to $800.

Select Board Vice Chairman Scott Buffington said ‘Anything goes wrong, you call the fire department,’ and with fewer fires and more EMS calls the town needs to find a way to pay for it. The Paris Fire Department responded to 60 of those calls last year at no reimbursable cost, and a lot of the accidents they respond to are people traveling through town who don't contribute to the town’s tax base.

Hunter said he's not sure what they can bill for, besides extrication, but it's still an option worth considering.

wgme.com