The Government through the Ministry of Road and Transport is planning to gazette school transport regulations in bid to curb frequent accidents.
The regulation will include fitting school buses with Vehicular Telematics to monitor vehicle movements and make it possible to observe how the buses are driven among others.
These regulations will determine how school transport is going to be managed, how schools will manage their drivers and vehicles and how the buses are maintained as well.
This was said by the Road and Transport CS, Kipchumba Murkomen, who further revealed that the committee has been working and is now at the final stages of determining the suitable telematics to be fitted in all public vehicles with school buses given the first priority.
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“The team is in its final stages of finalising the standards, including Kenya Bureau Standards (KBS), to announce the right telematics devices that are going to be installed in our vehicles,” the CS said.
The CS praised the success of Vehicular Telematics in trucks of logistics company, who applied have the technology and successfully track the movements of vehicles. This has reduced the accident cases involving trucks, he added.
“Transporters who become responsible an installed vehicular telematics complete with dash programmes, are able to monitor their drivers. For instance, if they are travelling from Mombasa to Malaba, they are able to see through computer and call them in case they are dozing off,” Murkomen said.
The Ministry is working together with Safaricom to ensure the technology being worked on is cheaper and affordable for schools.
All these efforts come after the country witnessed a series of road accidents involving school buses in recent past weeks. When applied, the device will help head of schools monitor their students’ safety.
By Brian Ndigo
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