Motorists whose vehicles break down on the road will have to arrange for immediate towing or risk losing their vehicles under new road traffic regulations.

The National Road Safety Authority (NRSA) says vehicle owners will be required to subscribe to a towing service or have towing cover under their insurance policy.

The Director of Registration, Inspection and Compliance at the NRSA, Kwame Koduah Attuahene, said the new rules no longer give motorists a 30-minute or one-hour grace period after a breakdown.

“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 said.

Speaking at a national sensitisation programme on the Road Traffic (Amendment) Act, 2025 (Act 1153) and the Road Traffic Regulations, 2026 (L.I. 2519), Mr Attuahene said motorists must also place an advance warning triangle and notify their towing service provider when their vehicle becomes disabled.

The towing company is expected to notify the police or NRSA and move the vehicle to a storage facility.

According to the NRSA, a towed vehicle will be kept at the storage facility for a maximum of seven days, during which the owner is expected to reclaim it.

Failure to reclaim the vehicle will trigger further steps towards a judicial auction.

Mr Attuahene said the owner will receive a seven-day notice before the sale.

“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,” he said.

He said the measures are intended to prevent broken-down and crashed vehicles from remaining on the roads and creating additional hazards.

“All of this is to ensure that we comply with the basic rule, which is that you must either subscribe or get a policy,” he said.