The National Road Safety Authority (NRSA) has finalized plans to implement a rigorous new towing regime starting in 2026, aimed at clearing broken-down vehicles from Ghana’s roads within one hour of a breakdown.
The Executive Director of the NRSA, Abraham Amaliba, explained that the new legislation is designed to create a proactive rather than reactive safety culture. Under the provisions of the recently passed Road Traffic Amendment Bill, vehicle owners will face legal consequences and heavy surcharges if they fail to remove stationary vehicles within the newly mandated timeframes.
“Stationary vehicles are also a cause of accidents, and the new law has also provided that coming next year, every vehicle owner must subscribe to a towing company, which means that once your car breaks down, you have 30 minutes, if it is in the city centre, to call a towing company”
Abraham Amaliba, Executive Director of the NRSA
This directive marks a significant shift in the John Dramani Mahama administration’s strategy to tackle road fatalities, identifying parked and disabled vehicles as a primary catalyst for highway crashes. According to the NRSA, the enforcement framework distinguishes between urban centers and intercity highways to ensure maximum efficiency.
Mr. Amaliba explained that unlike vehicle owners operating within city centers, those on intercity roads and highways, will be granted a one hour window to contact a towing service and initiate removal if the need arises.
The Authority clarified that in either cases, the responsibility for removal rests solely with the owner, who must be subscribed to a verified towing company or ensure their insurance provider offers such services.
Mandatory Subscriptions
By requiring vehicle owners to have pre-existing subscriptions with towing service providers, the Authority aims to eliminate the long delays often associated with searching for assistance during an emergency.
This “subscription model” is flexible, allowing owners to choose from a variety of private towing entities or utilize specialized packages provided by insurance firms. Mr. Amaliba emphasised on the “subscription” aspect as a response to years of failed attempts to implement a centralized national towing levy.
By decentralizing the service providers, the NRSA believes it can foster a competitive market that improves response times.
However, the mandate remains absolute: if an owner fails to engage their subscriber within the allotted 30 or 60 minutes, the NRSA will intervene directly. In such instances, the Authority will deploy its own contracted equipment to clear the road, with the offending owner being surcharged for the total cost of the operation.
Enhancing Safety and Traffic
For the Executive Director of the NRSA, the dangers posed by abandoned trucks and cars on unlit highways have long been a source of public outcry. “These stationary killers often lack proper warning signals,” he noted, leading to high-impact rear-end collisions, particularly at night.
The strict one-hour rule will significantly reduce these preventable tragedies, by treating a broken-down vehicle as an immediate hazard rather than a temporary inconvenience. Mr. Amaliba stressed how the new regulation would help sanitize the corridors of the country’s major transit routes during the policy brief.
He further noted that the “exciting provisions,” in the Legislative Instrument (L.I.) also place a burden of performance on the towing companies. Once called, these providers are legally required to respond within the timeframe specified in their service agreements.
This ensures that the burden of safety is shared between the vehicle owner and the service provider, creating a reliable network of emergency support across the national road infrastructure.
As the 2025 calendar year draws to a close, the NRSA is expected to begin a massive public education campaign to sensitize drivers on the specifics of the Road Traffic Amendment Bill.
The transition period throughout 2026 will serve as a test for the country’s towing capacity. Officials have indicated that the focus will initially be on high-traffic corridors where the risk of fatal collisions is highest.
The administration’s resolve to enforce these timelines reflects a broader commitment to modernizing the transport sector.
While some road users have expressed concerns regarding the additional cost of towing subscriptions, the NRSA maintains that the cost of a subscription is negligible compared to the loss of life and property resulting from road crashes.
As the new year approaches, vehicle owners are urged to finalize their arrangements with service providers to avoid the legal and financial penalties associated with non-compliance.
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