David Kiarie, manufacturer of Omata Speed Limiter. PHOTO | FRANK AKHUBULA
Following introduction of the new digital speed limiters, investors in road public transport will abolish the usage of old gadgets and instead embark on mission of fitting their vehicles with the latest modern limiters as the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) flexes its muscles to try to reduce road carnage during the coming festive season.
The old limiters have already been replaced by the latest generational limiters which have been designed as per NTSA standards and requirements with better features. The introduction follows the enactment of the recommendations by stakeholders in the industry after the end of a one-year period of a task force set up 2017.
According to the NTSA, the new features in the gadgets should send information on all road violations instantly by any driver to both the NTSA servers and the investor, in this case, the owner of the vehicle. The vehicles can also be tracked to their locations using the gadgets. The new limiters also have special sim-cards from various telecommunications companies.
The move now renders the old gadgets which were first introduced in the local market in 2014 following introduction of the new rules in public transport brought up by the then Minister for Transport late John Michuki.
After every five seconds, the limiter sends the report and the behaviour of every vehicle including any alteration of the gadget. These violations include overspeeding and gadget tampering.
In such event once the report is shared with both investors and officials at the NTSA servers that are manned 24 hours, the authority will promptly share the information with the nearest police station for the arrest of such driver.
The technology is a departure from the old generational gadgets which could only be useful after an accidents had happened when reports about the vehicle were required to be printed.
According to Mr David Kiarie, the manufacturer of Omata Speed Limiter who also doubles up as the chairman of Roads Safety Association of Kenya, the new speed limiters will solve several problems ranging from insecurity, better management and prevention of accidents.
“Once this becomes fully operational, a number of our police officers manning roadblocks will be reduced drastically. There will be no need to many of them but a few. In the event such as hijacking or diversion from TLB licence, investors who are able to locate their vehicles through phones may alert police for response,” says Kiarie.
He says they the investors will get value for their investments and will not fall victim to rogue drivers who have been using unorthodox ways to lie to vehicle owners about the movement of vehicles.
“Prevention measures for causing accidents will be dealt with promptly. It’s unfortunate that vehicle owners have not been informed by their leaders the real benefits that stand to reap out of this. I’m convinced that investors get the value of their investments,” he says. To purchase a new gadget, one has to part with between Sh25,000 and Sh45,000 depending on each service provider while for an upgrade of the old gadgets to the new investors are paying between Sh18,000 and Sh25,000.
A number of service providers have risen sharply and consumers have a range of options.
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