Ghost fleet: How New York City lost control of the tow truck industry

www.Gothamist.com, Liam Quigley, February 11, 2026

Filippo Bonura should not have been behind the wheel when he crashed a black Chevy Silverado into an 88-year-old man crossing a quiet residential street in Queens.

When police arrived around 5 a.m. on July 29, 2023, Chung Lun Shao sat bleeding on the stoop of a Middle Village apartment building. The truck was parked nearby, its hazard lights illuminating the pavement.

“Thank God I wasn’t going fast,” Bonura said, according to prosecutors. “I just tapped him with the truck.”

But Bonura had a troubled driving record. Prosecutors said his license was suspended at the time of the crash. And although the vehicle was registered as a tow truck, it was not authorized to operate in New York City. Bonura had previously faced numerous charges for unlicensed towing, according to public records.

Shao died a month later at a hospital from his injuries, which included a brain bleed, fractured pelvis, broken ribs and a punctured lung, prosecutors said. Bonura was charged with failure to exercise due care, aggravated unlicensed operation of a vehicle and driving without a license.

Bonura’s attorney in the case, Felipe Garcia, said the crash “had nothing to do with his work as a tow truck driver.”

But the crash was a sign of a bigger problem.

Shao’s death came amid a dramatic shift in the city’s tow truck industry. The pickup was part of a growing fleet of hundreds of unlicensed tow trucks that has nearly eclipsed the number of authorized tow trucks in the five boroughs as the city has dialed back enforcement. Continue article