National Road Safety Authority to Auction Abandoned Vehicles Under New Road Traffic Rules

• The National Road Safety Authority announced that abandoned or unrecovered vehicles on roads face compulsory towing
• The new Road Traffic Regulations, 2026 remove the previous 30-minute to one-hour grace period
• Vehicle owners must now subscribe to a towing service or hold an insurance policy with towing cover

National Road Safety Authority (NRSA) has announced that vehicles abandoned on public roads and not promptly recovered will be seized and auctioned under new road traffic regulations now in force.

The announcement was made by Kwame Koduah Attuahene, the NRSA's Director of Registration, Inspection, and Compliance, at a national sensitisation programme on the Road Traffic (Amendment) Act, 2025 (Act 1153) and the Road Traffic Regulations, 2026 (L.I. 2519).

Under the updated regulations, every vehicle owner in Ghana is obligated to either subscribe to a towing service company or hold an insurance policy that includes towing cover.

The change marks a significant departure from the previous framework, which allowed motorists a grace period of between 30 minutes and one hour following a breakdown before action was required.

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"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," Attuahene said.

The new rules eliminate that window entirely. "Once your vehicle breaks down, the law now requires that immediately you must 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 added.

When a vehicle becomes disabled, the owner is also required to place an advance warning triangle on the road and contact their towing service provider. The towing company is then expected to inform the police or the NRSA and arrange for the vehicle to be transported to a designated storage facility.

Auction and State Confiscation for Non-Compliance

Vehicles brought to a storage facility will be held for a maximum of seven days, during which the owner is expected to reclaim them and settle any towing and storage costs. Should the owner fail to act within that period, the NRSA will initiate steps towards a judicial auction.

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Owners will receive a seven-day notice before any auction takes place. If a vehicle fails to attract a buyer at auction, the state retains the right to confiscate it, with possible scrapping as the final outcome.

"After 21 days, you will be auctioned. You have seven days' notice before the sale. And where the sale is unsuccessful, the state will confiscate the vehicle and possibly scrap it," Attuahene said.

The NRSA framed the measures as essential to road safety, arguing that disabled and crashed vehicles left on roads create additional hazards for other road users. "All of this is to ensure that we comply with the basic rule, which is that you must either subscribe or get a policy," Attuahene said.

Source: YEN.com.gh