AN ESTIMATED 3,000 aMbulanCes transporting patients on South Africa’s roads – and at least 1,333 – are illegally converted Toyota Quantum panel vans that are not allowed to carry more than three passengers – all three of whom should be seated in the front. But provincial health departments are acquiring these structurally unsafe ambulances through official tender processes without realising they will never pass the stringent safety measures of the original manufacturer, Toyota Japan.
The reason is that the panel vans are designed and built to transport parcels, not people. There is even a sticker in the back compartment of the Quantum panel van warning: “Do not put your feet or seat on this platform. It is only for parcels.”
Yet, Toyota South Africa is selling hundreds of panel vans, knowing full well that they will be converted into ambulances, transporting both patients and crew who almost always will number more than the legal limit.
In order to turn panel vans into ambulances, extra windows are cut out of the carcass, which weakens the body of the vehicle. Extra weight is added by installing a cabinet and at least one seat as well as fitting up to two beds in the rear cabin without reinforcing the floor. Several additional mountings and attachment points for equipment are also fixed to the side panels.
Ultimately all these changes negatively affect the road-holding capacity of the vehicles, says Hennie de Beer who also filed a complaint with the Public Protector in 2012 about the illegally converted Toyota Quantum panel van taxis. De Beer had been Absa’s national manager for taxi finance but resigned when he realised panel vans were being illegally converted and financed as taxis. See “The killer Quantums stalking SA’s roads” (nose226).
Denne historien er fra November 2019-utgaven av Noseweek.
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Denne historien er fra November 2019-utgaven av Noseweek.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
Lennie The Liquidator Faces R500,000 Defamation Suit
After losing his cool when his fees were questioned
Panel Beater De Luxe
Danmar Autobody and its erstwhile directors get a serious panel beating in court papers. Corruption and theft are said to have destroyed the firm chaired by Nelson Mandela’s eldest daughter, leaving 200 workers destitute and threatening to kill.
Meet Covid Diarist Ronald Wohlman
Ronald Wohlman – EX SOUTH African copywriter, author, and actor – never dreamt that his lockdown diaries, written on Facebook and followed by people all over the world – would become his “life’s work”.
A Picture Of Peace?
Beware: Appearances can be deceptive
Flogging A (Battery-Driven) Dead Horse
Why plug-in vehicles are not all they’re cracked up to be– and, likely, never will be
Everybody Drinks Corona
I am hesitant to go Into the pub today. Not because it’s illegal, but there is a crème colored 1985 Mercedes 300D parked behind the pine tree. This means the devil is inside; that’s what we call Dr. De Villiers. You don’t know whether you will encounter the good doctor with the charming bedside manner or the violent, bipolar bully. The problem is, most of the time, you can never be sure which it is, so it’s best to always keep a social distance.
Never Take A Hypochondriac To A Pandemic
From Ronald Wohlman’s New York Corona Diary
The money train
Transnet in court battle with liquidators of Gupta-linked audit firm over R57m in ‘corrupt’ payments and invoices
‘He's no pharmaceutical genius, he's a vulture'
Pharma con seeks prison release to ‘help find Covid cure’
Bush school – A memoir
OUR SCHOOL WAS IN THE MIDDLE of the bush, ten miles from the nearest town in the harsh beauty of the Zimbabwean highveld. It started life in World War II as No 26 EFTS Guinea Fowl, a Royal Air Force elementary flying training school and I arrived there in 1954, just seven years after it became an all-white co-ed state boarding school.
