A vehicle collision warning system and method detects a rear-center area impending collision and a rear-lateral-corner area impending collision, and controls an operator alarm in one of a standard mode and a towing mode. In the standard mode, the operator alarm is controlled to provide an alert to an operator when the rear-center area impending collision is detected and/or the rear-lateral-corner area impending collision is detected. In the towing mode, the operator alarm is controlled to provide the alert to the operator when the rear-lateral-corner area impending collision is detected by the rear-lateral-corner area impending collision detection module, and to provide no alert to the operator when the rear-center impending collision is detected by the rear-center area impending collision detection module.