Technology can help curb road carnage

Wreckage of the bus involved in Narok accident last month. FILE 

By EDWARD OMETE

In Summary

• Platform would make it easy to share customer complaints, fleet safety record and insurance status.

Last month’s tragic bus accident near Narok claimed more than
50 lives. A month or so earlier another accident in Kisii claimed more than 30 lives.

It seems those responsible for overseeing road safety easily and quickly forget such happenings. As a society we have also become desensitised to road carnage and accepted it as normal.

The average district hospital’s surgical ward has about three in every ten beds occupied by road traffic accident victims. Given the long duration of bed occupancy for such patients and an even longer outpatient clinic follow ups, the resultant costs are high for such a potentially avoidable cause.

A recent article in this newspaper shows that the answer to the perennial problem is known; the only problem is its implementation.

In the wake of the latest bus accident, the Transport secretary drafted a raft of reforms similar to the Michuki rules.

As usual for a few weeks, instant fines at mobile traffic courts were introduced. I was impressed when my route’s errant long distance shuttles started refitting seat belts, issuing receipts with full passenger names, indicating seat numbers and telephone contacts.

However all this was short-lived. We have quickly slid back to the chaos that prevailed before. That such regulatory actions work is evidenced by the reduction of road accidents along the route during the crackdown as most of the unworthy trucks and PSVs were taken off the roads.

Secondly most PSVs had their speed governors fitted and working. Most importantly, however, the traffic police were vigilant.

Earlier in the year, an organisation was formed to spearhead road safety initiatives. The body has largely concentrated on media campaigns, sensitising passengers to speak out about bad drivers.

One key shortcoming has been that avenues for airing such complaints have not been passenger friendly.

A good consumer-driven initiative requires information. Technology should help in availing this data easily to passengers and also help them air and share their complaints.

Some of the missing key information to help passengers make informed choices is, for instance, a PSV operator’s fleet safety, traffic offences history, insurance status of the vehicles and passengers’ reviews on a particular operator.

I would be happy if I could have an SMS platform to see if the car I am travelling in is insured. Traffic police would also benefit from such data because often, if the owner of a PSV overlooks a critical factor like insurance, most likely other road safety factors will be ignored.

The police technology platform that is long overdue would definitely help curb such situations. Similarly, sharing data between the various agencies involved in the transport and road safety — police, insurers and motor vehicle registration — is a nightmare.

Currently, it is almost impossible for the roadside traffic police to even know how many times an errant driver has been arrested.