Now It's Killer Quantum Toyota Ambulances

Shocking accidents reveal how vehicles have been illegally converted from panel vans

- Susan Puren

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).