The National Road Safety Authority (NRSA) has set up a team 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 comes in the wake of increases in road crashes in the country, which reached a historic high level last year.

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

At the inauguration of a technical committee on Thursday, February, the Director-General of the NRSA, Abraham Amaliba, said the current trend where Toyota Voxy vehicles were constantly involved in road crashes was worrying, which was why the committee was expected to investigate and establish what was triggering it.

Chaired by a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Dr Godwin Kafui Ayetor, the committee investigating the phenomenon is 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).

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

Mr Amaliba assured members of the committee that their work would be religiously implemented to safeguard the country's roads.

"We are giving the committee one month within which to present the report because the issue of road crashes is like a red-hot potato that needs to be dealt with.

"We will not cover up the findings of this report because it is of interest to the people of Ghana and they must know," he stressed.

He explained that the report would determine the suitability of those vehicles for commercial usage.

Mr Amaliba stressed that as a regulator of the road sector, the authority was concerned about the carnage on the road and would take bold steps "to exorcise that ghost".

He said the numbers were not just figures but human lives, and added that “they are more than the figures we saw during the COVID-19 period, but the whole country rallied to fight the pandemic.

A single road crash claims many lives, but we do not seem to prioritise road safety”.

Mr Amaliba noted that the penchant to allow unroadworthy vehicles was contributing to the crashes.

"Passengers are also part of it because they urge drivers on to speed, and we need to change our attitude," he stressed.

For his part, Dr Ayetor assured the authority that the committee would work diligently to deliver on its mandate.

He said the pool of expertise the committee was composed of would ensure that quality work is done in the interest of the country.