CS Kipchumba Murkomen’s directive on Dashcams
buses, and vans must be fitted with dash cams and telematics [0] to help
curb road accidents.
Being one of those who have dashcams on a private vehicle, I have been
wondering how the above suggestion (yes, it is just that for now, I think)
will help curb road accidents.
Technically, it’s possible to connect thousands of devices in real-time.
The question is HOW and at WHOSE EXPENSE. We’re looking at data
connectivity which isn’t available everywhere in this country.
We’re looking at the data bundle cost – who will foot the bill for
connectivity? Lastly, we’re looking at data storage. It’s doable on AWS,
GCP, or MS Cloud (Azure), but at whose cost? And is that cost necessary?
Who will be the custodian of this data and how useful is it in preventing
accidents?
Personally, I believe it suffices to enforce the Speed Governors directive
to the hilt. That has a direct way of curbing accidents related to speeding.
But how do we prevent deaths from such vehicles as that trailer that lose
control on a descent section?
Such road sections should have an exit point for such vehicles and humans
made to understand that they are supposed to stay away from those emergency
exits.
[0] Telematics is a term that combines the words telecommunications and
informatics to describe the use of communications and IT to transmit, store
and receive information from devices to remote objects over a network.