Road accidents ‘to be reported within 4 minutes’

Dar es Salaam. Reporting of road accidents will now be completed within a maximum of four minutes.

This follows the Police Force’s adoption of technology to expedite and revolutionize the process in a country that has one of the highest accident rates in the region.

The new Road Safety App, which was handed over to the Police Force in Dar es Salaam on Wednesday by Tanzania Breweries Limited (TBL), is an innovation of a digital transformation firm, Smart Codes.

Road traffic accidents have become a major concern in Tanzania in recent years, with official data showing that in nine months (July 2021 and March 2022), about 1,191 people died in 1,594 road accidents in the country.

With the new app, which will initially be rolled out in Dar es Salaam for a two-year pilot study before being scaled up to other regions, traffic police will be provided with a proven methodology to address traffic crashes and incidents in their cities, according to TBL head of logistics Nancy Riwa.

Smart Codes marketing officer Johnson Bebwa said at the handover of the safety app that, unlike the manual system, police officers will not be required to return to the office to prepare the report after going to the accident scene.

He said with the new technology, traffic police will be able to collect accident data at the scene, fill it in on the safety app, and submit it to the headquarters within three to four minutes.

Currently, with the manual system, traffic police are compelled to spend much time as they are forced to go to the scene, collect data manually through physical forms, and go back to the headquarters for the compilation.

“Forget about the time that traffic police spent going to the scene, collecting data, and going back to the office. After returning to the office, it takes them up to 10 minutes to compile the report,” said Mr Bebwa.

TBL’s Riwa said with the app, the Tanzanian traffic police will be able to collect information, resources, and evidence-based recommendations, which will help guide the development of a plan and mobilise efforts to improve road safety and save lives.

“TBL is proud of the launch of the Road Safety App, this is another step we have taken to improve safety in Tanzania considering the fact that road safety is integral to nearly every aspect of daily life and is essential to building sustainable cities and communities,” she said.

“The TBL Road Safety initiatives hope to achieve sustainable cities and communities by upgrading monitoring literacy,” recounted Ms Riwa.

Chief Commanding Traffic Officer Ramadhani Ng’anzi expressed his happiness that the app will assist the traffic police to collect road accident data digitally through our smartphones.”

“The app is created to facilitate quick and efficient data collection. We will also be able to view the data and reports from either our phones or the dashboard, which will be accessed by the traffic administrator,” said Mr Ng’anzi.