Let’s speed up processes for towing project

The debate over a towing service has been ignited by the decision of the Roads and Transport Committee of Parliament to recommend to the government to go ahead with the contract it signed with the Road Safety Management Services Limited (RSMSL) for the towing of break-down and abandoned vehicles on the roads.

The public’s reaction to this is expected, because all this while various groups have taken different positions on the issue.

We have said before that no matter the fierce and sometimes explosive nature of the polemics, the good thing is that we generally agree that the towing service is welcome to get break-down and disabled vehicles off the roads.

Some of our compatriots have lost their lives on the roads because of the recklessness of some road users who leave break-down vehicles unattended to.

The situation has been aggravated by the inability of state agencies such as the Ghana Police Service and the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC) to enforce regulations on the roads to make road travel safe and pleasurable.

Last Tuesday, mixed reactions greeted the decision of the parliamentary committee — while some people jubilated, others threatened to fight on until what they desired was allowed to prevail.

But the good news is that the Minister of Transport, Mr Kwaku Ofori Asiamah, says the recommendations of the committee is just part of the broader consultation on the issue by the government to achieve consensus on the way forward.

The government, acting through the NRSC, signed an agreement with the RSMSL on October 16, 2016 for the towing of break-down and abandoned vehicles. The road map for the implementation of the project is contained in the Road Traffic Regulations, 2012 (L.I 2180).

Road users have raised issues with the decision of the law to make it mandatory for all vehicles to pay the levy and the amounts fixed as levy, saying it is an attempt to make the operator unnecessarily rich overnight.

Be that as it may, the Daily Graphic calls on the NRSC and all stakeholders to quickly get back to the drawing board to iron out all the grey areas to make the initiative acceptable to all.

Road crashes are claiming lives of breadwinners and our future leaders every day and those who survive the death traps on our roads become maimed for life.

Believers in pro-life are asking the question: Are we waiting for a prominent person to end his or her life in such bizarre circumstances before we act to make our roads safe and secure?

The Daily Graphic believes that the initiative to remove all disabled vehicles on the road is a good one which must be enforced.

However, we think, in the case of the national towing project, it is important to deepen the consultation process, so that beneficiaries’ concerns will be factored into the action plan.

The Daily Graphic appeals to all stakeholders to resume the stakeholder engagement until the deficiencies, if any, in the national towing project are identified and removed, so that the majority of beneficiaries will say: “Here we come, National Towing Service.”