Naivasha tragedy - there's lifesaving technology we could be using

What you need to know:

  • Apparently Kenyan drivers do not respect speed limits and so bumps are erected to slow them down, on highways
  • We also have speed guns that should be fixed permanently at black spots, instead of our traffic agencies carrying them around, chasing after bribes
  • Most Kenyans know that manual intervention is precisely where the system is failing given our high propensity to corruption

It was yet another day on Kenyan roads.  That, unfortunately, is what the Naivasha road tragedy is for Kenyans.

We shall mourn, complain and then wait for the next tragedy to happen on what are possibly the most dangerous roads on earth.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) 2015 figures, India had 160 million registered vehicles with a road accident rate of 16 deaths for every 100,000 citizens.

Comparatively, Kenya during the same period had only two million registered vehicles, but a road accident rate of 29 deaths for every 100,000 citizens.

Essentially, we have far fewer vehicles than India, but exhibit twice their road accident rate. Clearly, something is very wrong on Kenya's roads and we really must arrest the situation. 

The Principal Secretary for Transport has cited a road bump as one of the reasons why the truck, carrying highly inflammable materials, lost control on the highway.  But what was a road bump doing right in the middle of a highway?

In developed economies, a highway is often called a freeway, implying one is supposed to be moving freely, without restriction and at high speeds.  Bumps and highways should normally not appear in the same sentence.

But this is Kenya. 

Bumps and highways go hand in hand, apparently because our Kenyan drivers do not respect speed limits and so bumps are erected to slow them down, on highways.

COURT SUMMONS

Yet ignoring speed limits is not peculiar to Kenyan drivers alone.  Speeding is a global habit, but folks elsewhere do not resolve that with bumps.  They use technology, technology we already have but refuse to use.

Already we have cameras on our highways that can read car registration details.  We also have speed guns that should be fixed permanently at black spots, instead of our traffic agencies carrying them around, chasing after bribes.

With these two technologies, one can automate the process of detecting speeding vehicles and subsequently follow up with summons and penalties.

Indeed, it would have been easier to deliver summons and penalties directly to the postal addresses of the offenders, but at the moment this is impossible because we are yet to fully implement physical street-type addressing.

However, that should not stop us from electronically capturing the details of an offending vehicle and then sending the court summons and penalties through the new MPOST registered mail service from the Postal Corporation of Kenya.

This service is basically a virtual post office box linked to your mobile number. Once you get an email or physical letter in it, you automatically receive an alert to go pick or check your mail.

The whole idea is to eliminate the need for traffic agencies to manually handle traffic offenses. Most Kenyans know that manual intervention is precisely where the system is failing, given our high propensity to corruption.

Unfortunately the service is not free, so uptake may pose some challenges. Perhaps the government should decide to pay off the small subscription fee for all vehicle log-book holders and have them register with the MPOST virtual box service.

MAPPING ALCOBLOW

Subsequently, only offenders would be charged for SMS alerts arising from receiving summons and penalties.  Like developed economies, failure to settle the summons or penalties in good time would then lead to very punitive actions, like suspension of your driving license.

Another source of fatalities on our roads is drunken driving.  NTSA has intervened with their Alco-blow devices but accidents still happen.

In fact drunkards use technologies like Google Maps to identify, plot and side-step AlcoBlow stations in real time. A better approach would be to install ignition interlock alcohol detectors in high-risk vehicles such as those belonging to previous offenders.

These devices contain a breathalyser that measures the level of alcohol from the driver’s breath. If it exceeds a certain legal limit, the vehicle fails to start.  The breathalyser would of course stay active throughout the trip to ensure the driver remains sober.

These solutions may be worth exploring and are perhaps better than waking up one morning to discover that multiple bumps have been erected overnight on a highway.

Mr Walubengo is a lecturer at the Multimedia University of Kenya, Faculty of Computing and IT. Email: [email protected], Twitter: @jwalu