The cabs of 52 container trucks deemed unfit for the road were destroyed on Wednesday morning after being found among shipments of other vehicles at the Stung Hav Special Economic Zone and Port in Preah Sihanouk province, officials said.
According to Leang Uok, chief of customs at the port, the truck cabs had been taken apart and reassembled with powerful engines and other modifications, making it impossible to determine whether the vehicles were safe.
Mr. Uok said the port had collected the trucks since February, but that he did not know who had imported them.
“We used an excavator to demolish them because the government said the trucks have to be destroyed before some businesspeople buy them and it leads to an accident,” he said, adding that the cabs had been hidden among other legally imported vehicles.
Va Sim Soriya, spokesman for the Ministry of Transport, said unsafe modifications were a common problem on the roads, and difficult to monitor.
