The Bureau of Public Safety has reiterated calls on relevant authorities to clear broken-down vehicles from Ghana’s roads as they pose danger to commuters.
This comes after a fatal crash was recorded on Wednesday, April 14, 2021, involving a commercial vehicle and a broken-down truck at Tesano Junction in Accra which claimed two lives.
In 2017, Ghana considered the implementation of a “Mandatory Road Towing Levy” as part of a programme to ensure that all vehicles that break down on highways are cleared off the roads.
This was to be in line with Regulation 102 (3) of the LI 2180 (Road Traffic Regulations 2012) which imposes a mandatory levy on all owners and persons in charge of motor vehicles, for the purpose of towing broken-down or disabled vehicles on the roads.
Drivers were to pay a road safety levy ranging between GHS10 and GHS200.
Commercial vehicles and taxis were to pay GHS40, minibuses were to pay GHS80, while heavy-duty trucks were to pay between GHS80 and GHS200 annually, depending on their tonnage.
Non-commercial vehicles were to pay GHS20.
The implementation of the controversial towing levy was however suspended following protests from stakeholders in the transport sector.
But the Executive Director of the Bureau of Public Safety, Nana Yaw Akwada in a Citi News interview said the conversation on towing vehicles must be revisited.
“We have never been against removing broken down vehicles from the roads. What we advocated against is the mass levying of every vehicle owner. We think that there are processes, the systems must be set right to remove broken down vehicles from our roads within a specified period. We want authorities to make arrangements to tow broken down vehicles at a cost to the owners of the vehicles rather than levying every driver.”
