Minister of Public Works and Transport Sun Chanthol has called on owners of all types of vehicles to only take them for mechanical inspections and repairs at approved garages. The total number of garages across the country has increased to nearly 4,000 to meet customer needs.
Chanthol made the call on February 28 at the opening of another authorised garage in the capital’s Chbar Ampov district. The minister said the new garage will be an important asset to improving public safety in the Kingdom.
He said that despite the Covid-19 pandemic, the number of new vehicle registrations continued to increase. This meant more ministry-certified garages need to be established throughout the country.
He added that Cambodia currently has a total of 3,786 auto garages, although the number of those that meet international standards remains low. More efforts are required to improve the standard of these centres to help reduce the number of road accidents caused by malfunctioning vehicles or those which had been poorly repaired.
“[It] is worth noting that while the average number of deaths due to traffic accidents is five a day, many are caused by sub-standard vehicles being used on the roads. In 2001, mechanical problems caused accidents took the lives of 58 people,” he said.
Chanthol requested that vehicle owners across the country have their vehicles checked regularly at garages recognised by the ministry to reduce these accidents.
“I call on all vehicle owners to consider where they take their cars for repairs. They should choose trusted workshops with high standards and quality work. If not, you could be travelling at speed and a screw could come loose or your brakes could fail, for example.
“We cannot take risks on the roads, so we should only have maintenance and repairs carried out by places which adhere to the highest standards,” he said.
There are currently more than six million vehicles registered with the ministry – 920,000 cars and 5.4 million motorcycles. In 2021, a total of 6,100 new vehicles were registered, an increase of 10 per cent over the previous year.
