The Director of Planning and Programmes at the National Road Safety Authority (NRSA), David Adonteng, has rejected claims by the public that the authority intends to target high-paying vehicles when the toll levy is reintroduced.

This follows the NRSA’s plan on re-introducing the controversial road tow levy as part of measures to improve safety on roads after it was put to a stop by the Akufo-Addo government in 2017.

This issue has been one of the important conversations in the country; the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC) has been criticised severely for introducing a nationwide towing levy to ensure all vehicles that break down on highways are cleared off the roads.

For this reason, drivers were required to pay a road safety fee ranging between ¢10 and ¢200 in addition to their road-worthy certification fees.

But Civil Society Organisations and some Ghanaians kicked against the policy calling on government to scrap it immediately because it is fraudulent and not going to change anything; they claim it’s a way of taking money from the ordinary Ghanian.

He explained that upon paying the fee, car owners will be given a chance to call a service provider to attend to them whenever their vehicles break down; the NRSA will come and tow it to a safer place, fenced and will be repaired when it breaks down. Also, a road assistant will be assigned to the car owner.

Mr Adonteng further stated that there will be terms and conditions; therefore, anyone who does not abide will be sanctioned, and if they fail to perform, their license will be revoked.

In an interview with Israel Laryea on the AM Show, he explained that vehicles will be categorized based on their capacity.

“Somebody saying we haven’t taken care of perhaps the target vehicles is wrong, because they are paying higher whiles the others are paying lower. So, we have categorized them into vehicle capacity, and they are all not paying the same,” he said.

According to data by the Police Service, nearly 800 lives have been claimed through accidents in the first quarter of 2021

The most recent one occurred at Tesano in Accra, where a commercial bus driver ran into a vehicle abandoned alongside the road, which left two persons dead.