Mobile Based System For Reporting Road Accidents To Enable Local First Aiders Respond To Emergencies In Kenya

Abstract

Road accidents in Kenya claim approximately 3000 lives every year and leave a number of people with serious injuries or lifetime disabilities. To save lives after an accident is an issue that needs rapid response by the emergency service bodies. This has been a challenge in Kenya as there is no well-coordinated way of reporting accidents and deploying emergency personnel. Despite the fact that there are numerous emergency service providers more often the challenge has been to report to the nearest service provider as there is no way for the person at the accident scene to know where to report to. The frequency of road accidents is on the rise in Kenya with many accidents going noticed by witnesses but unreported or reported late. One main reason is lack of a simple and reliable medium of reporting directly to the concerned parties. A unified way is not available for most witnesses to report. The aim of this work was to investigate weaknesses in the current system of reporting road accidents and response by first aiders with interest to provide a more significant solution. A study was conducted on Red Cross Society staff and members of the public on their experience and opinion on the current manual system. An investigation of the most common methods used for reporting road accidents was done and the results indicate that most respondents are not confident that the current system ensure minimal response time to road accidents. The current system is not efficient enough since some accidents end up being reported and responded to very late. From the survey, it was noted that there is need for applying technology in reporting road accidents and responding by first aiders. In this study, a road accidents reporting system was developed. A mobile cum web app was created and used to report accidents. Relevant parties can get alerts through the app and action immediately to save lives. Location information is supported by the app and depends on a smartphone inbuilt GPS module. Also the progress of the reported accidents can be checked in the system. The development of the system followed a waterfall system development life cycle (SDLC) and was implemented by use of prototypes. The results obtained during the study especially at testing, indicate that the developed system if used properly will make reporting and response to road accidents almost real –time and easy. It will also increase number of accidents reported since anyone with a smart phone can just report by inputting a single entry then submitting. Many lives may be saved due to very fast response to road accidents in Kenya with improved coordination of first aiders and integrated communication.