The issue of the Mandatory Towing Levy has reared its head again. As key stakeholders in the road safety industry are welcoming the idea and proffering meaningful suggestions to making it work successfully for the benefit of Ghanaians, some others describe it as a money-making avenue for Jospong.
Over the years a Jospong Group of Companies’ (JGC) subsidiary, Road Safety Management Services Limited (RSMSL) has partnered with the Ghana Police Service and the Ghana Road Safety Commission to ensure that they deliver road safety services across the nation for the safety of Ghanaians.
In 2012 under Prof. John Evans Atta Mills’ government, the Parliament passed the Mandatory Towing Levy into law which was greeted with discontent by some stakeholders. This discontentment resulted in the temporal suspension of the implementation of the levy.
In August 2017 under the presidency of H.E. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Roads and Transport Committee of Parliament Chairman, Mr. Samuel Aye Paye released the committee’s recommendation of the committee making way for the implementation of the law.
This law is still yet to be implemented.
In a Thursday Myjoyonline.com publication, Ghanaians were told the National Road Safety Authority (NRSA) was considering the re-introduction of the mandatory tow levy as part of measures to improve safety on our roads.
The levy, when implemented as a law, will impose a mandatory levy on all owners and persons in charge of motor vehicles, for the purpose of towing broken down or disabled vehicles on the roads.
The publication said 800 lives were lost through accidents in just the first quarter of 2021, according to Ghana Police Service data. This has got a couple of Ghanaians wagging their tongues against the government and the masterminds of this levy.
Investigative Journalist Manasseh Azure Awuni in a Facebook post purported to be his describing the initiative as a fraudulent joke which is seeking to compel vehicle owners to pay levies to Jospong according to him will not solve the problem.
He even believes that the broken down vehicles are on the road because the Ghana Police has failed to enforce the laws and not the absence of towing vehicles.
His wish was that the Road Safety Commission uses their brains as procurement is not going to solve Ghana’s problem. He ended by proposing that the security services should impose hefty fines and prosecute offenders.
This stance got me thinking about what is the cause of our road carnage? Immediately, I found in my thoughts that key among the causes of road accidents were bad roads, disabled vehicles on the roads, reckless and careless driving, unprofessional drivers using the road, indiscipline of security personnel among others.
The main cause being speed which invariably is attributable to human greed or attitudes that only behaviour change communication can cure.
One critical initiative to curbing the road carnage could therefore be to tow all disabled vehicles away from the view of drivers so as to create a clear vision for oncoming drivers so why will people kick against such a great initiative?
If these were the major causes and the towing is to remove all disabled vehicles on the road at all times to create clear vision for drivers, backed by prosecution, Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority ensuring that drivers are meticulously licensed and the security ensuring that only professionally trained drivers use the roads in a disciplined manner would it help or not? T
he tow levy is a major state action that can reduce the road carnage while we intensify behavior change communication on road safety to conscientise road users and encourage our security services to ensure the right thing is done and we would be making a lot of impact going forward.
I know that Manasseh is against this thing because it is Jospong who is the obvious implementer of this levy and almost every Ghanaian is aware of his hatred for Jospong and that does not augur well for our national development.
How can the same person who is urging people to use their brains so hate somebody who uses his brains for national development? Or Manasseh doesn’t know that it takes brains to think through this proposition and money to procure the heavy duty equipment that are stationed in the regions for the towing purpose?
I referred those who are against the levy to a recent Joy News Documentary entitled “Crushed” where Winston Amoah who analyzed the statistics of death by road accident from 2015-1,802, 2016-2,284, 2017-1,823, 2018-2,020, 2019-2,284 and 2020-2,589 respectively. This should be a matter of worry to every meaningful Ghanaian.
But with these worrying figures which shows that the road carnage is alarmingly going higher some Ghanaians like Manasseh have still callously been standing against this all important intervention aimed at changing the narrative.
Existing laws require drivers and passengers in Ghana to wear seatbelt Road Traffic Act, 2004 (Act 683). Studies have even shown that seat belts reduce the risk of fatal injury to front seat passenger car occupants by 45% and risk of moderate critical injury by 50% but many Ghanaian drivers have refused to make sure that they have functional seatbelts in their cars whereas the passengers also feel uncomfortable and therefore will not wear seatbelts. The Ghana Police Service too has also failed in ensuring that passengers have their seatbelts on.
In 2014 DVLA gave a directive that all commercial buses must have seatbelts for passengers. The Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) boldly kicked against the directive claiming that it was too costly for their members to acquire seatbelts hence they would not comply with the directive.
They invoked actions of strike subsequently which compelled the DVLA to rescind its decision to implement the directive. The obvious therefore is that once the buses are not mandated to have functional seatbelts 50% of lives lost on the roads from 2014 to date involving buses may be as a result of their actions and Ghanaian have seen nothing wrong with this.
Where were Manasseh and his ilk when the GPRTU was kicking against the installation of the seatbelts in commercial buses and they are busy at work today kicking against the tow levy implementation?
I want to urge the government to go ahead and implement the mandatory tow levy for the safety of the masses for money is not everything.
Let us ensure that our roads are not blocked by disabled vehicles that will block the vision of drivers leading to accidents because some group of people are thinking about themselves and their money but not the general good of humanity.
People opposing this levy are counterproductive and non-development oriented or better still they think backwardly and must be ignored.
Sources: MyPublisher24.com