Road Safety Management Services Limited (RSMSL), a private company, has deployed tow trucks for the start of a pilot phase of the National Towing Project expected to be rolled out in full on May 1, 2017.

The National Towing Project is aimed at removing broken down vehicles that can cause accidents from the country’s roads.

The pilot programme is being rolled out by RSMSL in collaboration with the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC), the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) and the Ghana Police Service.

Operations Manager for Road Safety Management Services Limited, Ing. Kwadjo Osei, said the deployment of the tow trucks, over 100 of them, will be complemented by other facilities to ensure effective monitoring of the country’s roads.

 “When the final project rolls out in May we are going to launch ambulances equipped with paramedics and some basic first aid equipment to attend to injured people on the highways. There will also be motorbikes that will be patrolling our high ways to ensure that our roads are safe,” he told journalists in Accra during the deployment of the trucks.

There will also be a toll-free number for the public to contact the RSMSL for a quick response.

Figures from the Police indicate that some 2,890  road crashes have been recorded from January to March this year, while 2,830 road accidents were recorded in the same period in 2016.

In both cases over 426 deaths and 2,523 injuries have been recorded, putting the rate of road accidents on the country’s road at alarming proportions.

The National Towing Project was first unveiled in 2013, however, it fell on the rocks following disagreements between the National Road Safety Commission and RSMSL.

With the deployment of the tow trucks, stakeholders in the project hope to clamp down and manage broken down vehicles on Ghana’s roads before a full-scale deployment is done on May 1, 2017.