The Ghana Standards Authority (Ghana Standards Authority) is set to develop standards to regulate vehicle conversion garages across the country, as authorities intensify scrutiny of unaccredited workshops operating outside the regulatory framework.
Ashanti Regional Director of the National Road Safety Authority (NRSA), Kwasi Agyenim-Boateng, told Luv FM that the issue came to the fore following a broader examination of the Toyota Voxy safety concerns, during which a government-convened committee discovered a large number of garages conducting vehicle conversions without oversight or accreditation.
“We have the Vehicle Standardisation Committee, a committee led by the Ghana Standards Authority and made up of other stakeholders including the DVLA and the Road Safety Authority. They have been able to develop the vehicle standard for the country. But after this Voxy issue, we have come to realise that a lot of unaccredited garages are there doing their own thing without anybody checking them,” he said.
Mr. Agyenim-Boateng questioned the basis on which garages are currently performing conversions, noting the absence of any measurable benchmark.
“Even those who do the conversion, by what standards do they measure the conversion? What yardstick do they use?” he asked.
He revealed that the Ghana Standards Authority intends to establish dedicated standards for garages involved in vehicle conversion, with the aim of improving accountability and enabling traceability in the event of a crash.
“In future, there will be standards developed for those who want to convert vehicles, so that in case of a crash, it would aid us in traceability. We would be able to trace the specific garage that did the conversion on a specific vehicle,” he said.
Mr. Agyenim-Boateng also clarified the legal definition of long-distance travel under Ghana’s road traffic regulations, noting that the threshold is clearly defined in law.
“Someone might even ask what is long distance? If you take a look at the Road Traffic Regulations, L.I. 2180, Regulation 195, it says that any journey exceeding 100km is classified as a long journey,” he explained.
His comments follow a renewed public advisory issued by the NRSA on April 13, cautioning against the use of Toyota Voxy vehicles for long-distance journeys in Ghana, particularly those converted from right-hand drive to left-hand drive.
The advisory followed findings of a Technical Working Group established by the NRSA to examine safety concerns arising from both structural conversion and operational use of such vehicles.
In its statement, the NRSA urged the public to avoid patronising Toyota Voxy vehicles for long-distance travel and called on operators to ensure full compliance with safety and regulatory standards.
The NRSA said it is working in collaboration with institutions including the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA), Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority, the National Insurance Commission, and the Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD) of the Ghana Police Service to implement the Technical Working Group’s recommendations.
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