The government will auction vehicles that are abandoned on roads and not promptly towed under new road traffic regulations, the National Road Safety Authority (NRSA) has warned.

The new rules require vehicle owners to subscribe to a towing service or obtain an insurance policy that includes towing cover.

The Director of Registration, Inspection and Compliance at the NRSA, Kwame Koduah Attuahene, said motorists who fail to comply could have their vehicles compulsorily towed at their own cost.

“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,” Mr Attuahene said.

He said the new regulations remove the grace period previously given to motorists after a breakdown.

“Once your vehicle breaks down, the law now requires that you immediately 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.

Mr Attuahene was speaking 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 regulations, motorists whose vehicles become disabled must also place an advance warning triangle and notify their towing service provider.

The towing company is expected to notify the police or NRSA and arrange for the vehicle to be moved to a storage facility.

Vehicles taken to a storage facility will initially be kept for up to seven days, during which the owner is expected to reclaim the vehicle.

Failure to do so could trigger further steps towards a judicial auction.

Mr Attuahene said owners would be given seven days’ notice before the auction.

“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.

The NRSA says the measures are intended to prevent broken-down and crashed vehicles from remaining on roads and creating 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,” Mr Attuahene said.