The National Road Safety Authority has warned that vehicles that are abandoned on roads and not promptly towed will be auctioned under the new road traffic regulations.
Vehicle owners, under the new rules, will be required to either purchase an insurance policy that includes towing cover or subscribe to a towing service to ensure that vehicles that are involved in crashes or that break down are removed from the road without delay.
The Director of Registration, Inspection and Compliance at the NRSA, Kwame Koduah Attuahene, warned that vehicles could be compulsorily towed, with the cost charged to owners if they fail to comply.
“The law is that every vehicle owner will be required to subscribe to a towing service company or buy an insurance policy that has a towing service tied to it,” Mr Attuahene said.
Unlike the previous regulations, which allowed motorists a grace period after a breakdown, the new rules require immediate action.
“Once your vehicle breaks down, the law now requires that immediately you must have it towed. In the old law, it gave you a 30-minute or one-hour grace period, but now the law is that as soon as you break down, you must have your vehicle towed,” he said.
Speaking at a national sensitisation programme on the Road Traffic (Amendment) Act, 2025 (Act 1153) and the Road Traffic Regulations, 2026 (L.I. 2519), Mr Attuahene urged motorists to also place an advance warning triangle and notify their service provider when their vehicles break down or crash.
The towing company, in turn, is expected to notify the police or NRSA and also arrange for the vehicle to be moved to a storage facility.
Vehicle owners will have a maximum of seven days to reclaim their vehicles from the storage facilities and if they fail to do so, further steps will be taken towards a judicial auction.
Mr Attuahene said owners would receive a seven-day notice before the sale. Vehicles that are not sold during an auction would be confiscated by the state and possibly scrapped.
“After 21 days, you will be auctioned. You have seven days’ notice before the sale. And where the sale is unsuccessful, the state will confiscate the vehicle and possibly scrap it,” he said.
He said the measures were designed to prevent disabled and crashed vehicles from creating additional hazards on the roads.
“All of this is to ensure that we comply with the basic rule, which is that you must either subscribe or get a policy,” he said.
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