According to an expert, mobile phones, when used properly, can help prevent vehicular accidents in the country.
According to the telecommunications expert, some institutions in the country are already benefiting from the technology.
In an interview with the media, Vodafone’s Head of Network, Ebenezer Siebu, made the observations as the world celebrated the 50th anniversary of mobile telephone communications.
The TV station wanted to know how mobile phones have changed people’s lives and businesses since their inception.
Mr. Siebu explained that most accidents on major roads are caused by speeding, and that mobile phones can be used to reduce this.
“We don’t preach on what we don’t live by so we are even leveraging on these solutions internally,” he explained.
He stated that they are using this system to track their vehicles across the country, which has resulted in fewer accidents involving their vehicles.
“We have fixed these tracking systems in all our vehicles to monitor speeding in real times which prompts us whether a driver is speeding. Not only for speeding, that is one aspect. Another aspect is journey management. For example, one driver can drive from here [in Accra] to Tamale for long hours. But if the company policy says a driver must park and rest every three hours in a journey, our tracking systems can monitor all these,” Mr. Siebu revealed.
Speeding, according to road safety experts, is a major cause of accidents in the country, but such mobile tracking systems can reduce such accidents by psychologically prompting the driver to limit his or her speed.
“It drives behaviour toward desirable outcomes”.
When asked if such facilities had been made available to stakeholders in road safety management, Mr. Siebu stated that they were already working with some stakeholders on the use of mobile phones to reduce accidents.
“The good thing is that we are already in touch with the major stakeholders and they also appreciate the value of these solutions and some of these enterprises and some of the public agencies have implemented these tracking solutions in their vehicles,” he added.
Mr. Siebu said “what we are going to see in the future is increase adoption of some of these things to save lives and also benefit the economy”.
