NRSA Cracks Whip as Abandoned Vehicles Face Auction
Government to auction abandoned vehicles after 21 days if owners fail to tow immediately under new road traffic regulations.
Motorists who abandon broken down vehicles on public thoroughfares risk losing them permanently under a stringent new dispensation announced by the National Road Safety Authority. The government will impound and auction unclaimed automobiles after 21 days as part of sweeping reforms designed to purge highways of hazardous obstructions and enforce swift incident clearance.
Under the Road Traffic Amendment Act and accompanying Regulations, every vehicle owner must now subscribe to an accredited towing service or procure an insurance policy embedding towing cover to guarantee immediate evacuation after breakdowns or collisions. The era of discretionary grace periods has been expunged, with the law mandating instantaneous removal the moment immobilisation occurs.
Director of Registration, Inspection and Compliance at the NRSA, Kwame Koduah Attuahene, stated that owners who fail to subscribe will have their vehicles compulsorily towed with costs levied against them. He stressed that motorists must deploy an advance warning triangle and promptly alert their service provider, which in turn must notify the Police or the Authority and transfer the wreck to a designated storage facility.
Vehicles conveyed to holding yards will be retained for a maximum of seven days for reclamation, contingent upon proof of ownership and settlement of towing and storage charges. Where retrieval fails, the owner will receive a seven day notice preceding judicial auction after 21 days, and where auction proves unsuccessful, the state reserves the prerogative to confiscate and ultimately scrap the automobile.
Mr Attuahene underscored that the overhaul unveiled at the national sensitisation programme seeks to eliminate secondary crashes triggered by stationary wrecks. He maintained that compulsory towing subscription is no longer optional but a statutory obligation essential to preserving corridor safety and sanitising Ghana’s road environment.
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Author: Korkor Anumu
