Intercity commercial shuttle: Toyota Voxy no no - National Road Safety Commission

Toyota minivan, Voxy, has not been designed for long-distance use and must be restricted to intracity use only, a technical committee report by the National Road Safety Authority (NRSA) has recommended. 

The expert investigative committee also established that the over 7,000 Toyota Voxy vehicles imported into the country had undergone conversions from right-hand drive to left-hand drive, contrary to the country's road traffic laws.

A mechanical engineer and Chairman of the technical committee, Dr Godwin Kafui Ayetor, who presented the report to the Director-General of the NRSA, Abraham Amaliba, yesterday, said it had found from the manufacturer drive to left-hand drive, contrary to the country's road traffic laws.

A mechanical engineer and Chairman of the technical committee, Dr Godwin Kafui Ayetor, who presented the report to the Director-General of the NRSA, Abraham Amaliba, yesterday, said it had found from the manufacturer that Toyota Voxy vehicles were not fundamentally suitable for use as commercial passenger vehicles because they had not been designed for that purpose.

“Toyota has confirmed that the Voxy and Noah models are produced exclusively for the Japanese domestic market and are, therefore, not manufactured in left-hand drive configurations.

This confirms that all Toyota Voxy and Noah vehicles in Ghana have undergone conversions from original right-hand drive to left-hand drive,” he said.

Again, Dr Ayetor said official response by Toyota Motor Corporation to the investigative committee revealed that Toyota Voxy vehicles were not suitable for commercial use because “they have been designed as a minivan for young middle-class families, not for commercial passenger transport.”

Dr Ayetor, a Senior Lecturer at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), presented the report on behalf of the committee and stressed that the recommendations were purely anchored on technical and evidence-based assessments of Voxy vehicles.

Context

On February 12 this year, the NRSA set up a committee of experts in road safety to investigate the spate of road crashes involving Toyota Voxy vehicles being used for commercial purposes.

The technical working committee was set up in the wake of increases in road crashes in the country, which reached a historic high level in 2025.

Last year alone, 2,949 persons were killed in reported road crashes in the country, the highest in 35 years. 

The NRSA indicated that it had discovered a worrying trend where Toyota Voxy vehicles were constantly involved in road crashes, which was why the committee was expected to investigate and establish the triggers.

The committee was made up of members drawn from key state and non-state institutions, including the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA), the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA), the Ghana Road Transport Coordinating Council (GRTCC), the National Road Safety Authority (NRSA), Toyota Ghana, and the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT).

It was expected to look into whether the conversion of the vehicle from right-hand drive to left-hand drive contributed to crashes; whether the vehicles were suitable for commercial use on Ghana’s roads, analyse crash data and road safety trends involving Toyota Voxy, and make recommendations to ensure safety on the road.

Findings

The committee found that over 7,257 Toyota Voxy vehicles had been registered in the country without any evidence of ministerial approval.

It added that all of those vehicles had undergone conversions from right-hand drive to left-hand drive.

The report added that site visits to garages performing the right to left hand drive conversions had revealed that hundreds of workshops across the country were engaged in the illegal trade.

“While some of the conversions are undertaken in Dubai, about 90 per cent of them are carried out locally within Ghana.

In some cases, the services of these conversion centres are outsourced to countries such as Burkina Faso, Benin, and Togo,” the report added.

Again, the report indicated that economic pressures put on the drivers of Toyota Voxy vehicles largely contributed to speeding by the drivers.

For instance, the report showed that drivers of those vehicles were given daily sales of between GH¢3,500 and GH¢4,000, “compelling drivers, who are often inexperienced, to speed to complete the multiple trips required by Voxy’s lower passenger capacity.”  

NRSA directive

After receiving the committee’s report, the NRSA Director-General directed the immediate cessation of the importation of Toyota Voxy vehicles into the country.

Mr Amaliba also asked persons involved in the conversion of those vehicles from right-hand to left-hand drive to stop the illegal practice with immediate effect.

He said the continuous importation and conversion of those vehicles contravened Section 58 of the Customs Act, 2015 (Act 891), which explicitly prohibited the import of right-hand steering motor vehicles without ministerial approval.

The NRSA Director-General also stressed that urgent steps would be taken to close down all garages that were illegally converting the Voxy vehicles.

Assurance

Mr Amaliba said the findings of the committee were instructive and would be strictly enforced to bring sanity to the roads.

He gave a firm assurance that NRSA would work with relevant stakeholders, including the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), the DVLA, and the Police Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD), to implement the recommendations of the committee.

Mr Amaliba added that the technical capability and expertise of the members of the committee left no doubt that there was a need for urgent steps to address the challenges with Toyota Voxy vehicles.

“I will convene a meeting with the NRSA management to see the way forward,” the director-general said.

He stressed that the myriad of problems associated with the Toyota Voxy would not be allowed to persist.