Until the law on road traffic regulations is amended, owners of break-down vehicles will pay for the cost of mandatory towing services after the services have been delivered to ensure safety on the roads, the Senior Minister, Mr Yaw Osafo- Maafo, has announced.

Such an arrangement, he explained, was to ensure the provision of towing services, while the law, L.I. 2180 (Road Traffic Regulations, 2012) goes through the amendment process.

At a meeting with owners or representatives of towing companies in Accra on Thursday, Mr Osafo-Maafo advised all towing service companies which had the capacity to tow break-down vehicles and were ready to accept post-service payment for now to register with the Ministry of Transport to be licensed to do so in accordance with the law.

He said the decision to meet with those companies was underpinned by the fact that break-down vehicles had to be taken off the roads due to the carnage they caused, although public outcry had compelled the government to scrap an initial annual mandatory towing levy policy.

“Therefore, we are here to engage with you the towing service companies to see what interventions could be put in place in the interim.

"There is the need to provide that service and so we are asking those who have the capacity to provide the services to register through the appropriate ministry and provide the services for those who need the services and for those who receive them to pay for them,” he added.

In 2012, Parliament passed L.I. 2180.

Regulation 102 (3) of L.I. 2180 imposes a mandatory levy on all owners and persons in charge of motor vehicles for the purpose of towing break-down or disabled vehicles from the roads.

Based on that, the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC) announced that the L.I. would be implemented from July 1, 2017.

That was, however, met with public outcry and calls on the government to review the mandatory towing levy, as a result of which the government decided to hold extensive consultations with stakeholders in the transport sector, after which it decided to back down on the implementation of the mandatory towing levy.

Following extensive consultations between the Ministry of Transport and stakeholders in the transport sector, the government decided not to implement the mandatory towing levy scheduled to have started on July 1, 2017.

A statement signed by the Minister of Transport, Mr Kwaku Ofori Asiamah, and issued in Accra on August 20, 2017, said the government had decided to seek a review of parts of L.I. 2180 (Road Traffic Regulations, 2012).

It said the review would seek to remove from the law specifically the concept of mandatory towing levy on all owners and persons in charge of motor vehicles and trailers and also limit the role of the government in the provision of towing services to only licensing and regulating service providers.

The statement pledged the commitment of the government to the position that break-down vehicles ought to be removed from the roads to avert accidents.

“New modalities for dealing with the problem of break-down or disabled vehicles will be formulated and announced in due course,” it stated.

Mr Yaw Safo-Maafo addressing the meeting. With him are Mr Mustapha Abdul-Hamid (right), the Minister of Information, and Mr Robert Kwabena Kyei, the Technical Advisor to the Senior Minister

Don’t re-invent the wheel

Expatiating on the government’s position on the towing levy, Mr Osafo-Maafo said the plan to implement a national towing policy would not be abandoned but implemented to the satisfaction of all stakeholders.

 He, however, appealed to the NRSC not to re-invent the wheel in its bid to draft amendments to the law.

“Other African countries are practising national towing services that are working perfectly and, therefore, we need to learn from them. We need to learn from international best practices,” he said.

He was of the opinion that the towing service was basically a private sector thing and the government was ready to support the private sector to deliver the service efficiently.

He assured the police of the government’s commitment to assist the Ghana Police Service to beef up its logistics to enhance its patrols on the roads aimed at identifying and removing break-down vehicles from the roads in the interim.

Moderating the meeting, the Minister of Information, Mr Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, said the government would continue to engage all major stakeholders until a concensus was reached to begin the national policy.

The service providers expressed the fear that if payment was not made mandatorily prepaid, they would continue to face the challenges they were currently facing, which included people abandoning their towed vehicles for days, months and years.

Other challenges included people abandoning their vehicles that had been damaged beyond repairs and not paying for the towing services, among other challenges.

Break-down vehicles

Statistics available at the NRSC indicate that 21 per cent of road accidents are caused by abandoned break-down vehicles on the roads.

According to the commission, six persons died daily through road accidents, while an estimated 1,800 died yearly on the roads.

By the end of November 2016, 11,378 road accidents had been recorded, involving 17,746 vehicles and 12,154 casualties.

Of the casualties, 1,990 lives were lost, while 10,154 sustained various degrees of injury.

The NRSC said statistics available also indicated that out of the 10,852 crashes recorded in 2015, involving 16,958 vehicles, 1,634 deaths were recorded.

February 22, 2017

A former Member of Parliament for Akwatia, Dr Kofi Asare, reportedly drove his car into an abandoned articulated truck in a curve on the Abetifi-Agogo trunk road.

February 12, 2017

At least eight people were reported dead and 11 others injured in a ghastly accident that occurred at Ewusiejoe, near Agona Nkwanta in the Ahanta West District in the Western Region.

Eyewitnesses said a bus, which was carrying mourners from a funeral in Takoradi, rolled over several times and rammed into a mini-bus parked on the ears of the road after an overtaking manoeuvre that went bad.

Agreement

In 2011, the Road Safety Management Services Limited (RSMSL) was awarded a contract to tow break-down vehicles from the roads.

The company went ahead to sign an agreement with the NRSC to that effect in 2013.

About 118 towing trucks were acquired by the RSMSL for the national towing service.