The Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) has raised concerns over the clause in the new road traffic regulations which requires auctioning of vehicles that remain unclaimed beyond 21-day period.
Deputy Public Relations Officer of the GPRTU, Samuel Amoah welcomed the new law which mandates the immediate removal of broken-down vehicles from roads, saying it would help improve road safety and reduce accidents.
However, the Union described the clause which stipulates an auctioning of vehicles which are not claimed beyond the 3 weeks deadline as “harsh.”
“We believe that on one side it is a good thing to help reduce the number of accidents on our roads,” he said.
“But there is a clause that we have a little challenge with. That is the auctioning of the vehicle. We think that the clause on auctioning the vehicle, we see it to be quite harsh,” he stated onTV3 Daily Brief, Friday, September 11.
Mr Amoah noted that the GPRTU had previously introduced a nationwide towing service in collaboration with the National Road Safety Management Services to help address the challenge of broken down vehicles on roads.
He said the Union therefore supported the new requirement for vehicles to be towed immediately when they become a hazard on the road.
According to Mr Amoah, vehicle owners should instead be allowed to reclaim their vehicles after paying the applicable towing and parking charges once they exceed the 21-day period.
He suggested that authorities calculate the cost based on the towing service and the number of days the vehicle remains at the designated holding facility and make the vehicle owner pay the accumulated charges.
“We think that when they tow the vehicle to a safer place, whenever the owner has to go there to take the vehicle, he will pay for the towing fee and parking fee,” he said.
Mr Amoah further argued that there could be legitimate reasons why an owner may be unable to retrieve a vehicle within the stipulated 21-day period.
“There might be a reason why within 21 days, the owner was unable to go and take the vehicle,” he said.
“So, we believe that anytime you organise yourself to go and take your vehicle, they will calculate your bill for you to pay. But for them to auction the vehicle, that is what we disagree with,” Mr Amoah said.
New Road Safety law
Government has announced it will auction vehicles that are abandoned on roads and not promptly towed under new road traffic regulations.
The new rules require vehicle owners to subscribe to a towing service or obtain an insurance policy that includes towing cover.
The Director of Registration, Inspection and Compliance at the NRSA, Kwame Koduah Attuahene, said motorists who fail to comply could have their vehicles compulsorily towed at their own cost.
“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.
He said the new regulations remove the grace period previously given to motorists after a breakdown.
“Once your vehicle breaks down, the law now requires that you immediately 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.
Mr Attuahene was speaking at a national sensitisation programme on the Road Traffic (Amendment) Act, 2025 (Act 1153) and the Road Traffic Regulations, 2026 (L.I. 2519).
