UTech student developing app to tackle violators of road code
Published:Thursday | October 19, 2023 | 12:11 AMAsha Wilks/Gleaner Writer
Concerned by the alarming number of motor vehicle accidents and road fatalities reported daily, a student from the University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech) has set out to create an application that will allow drivers to report incidents as they happen in real time.
Speaking with The Gleaner recently at the university’s second annual Microsoft Day, Tahjaye Edwards showcased his application, which is in its pre-development stages, at the event’s technology exposition.
Edwards intends to use his application to collaborate with the Government in going after violators of the Road Traffic Act.
SafeDrive, ‘Stay Alert, Stay Alive’ is an innovative application that allows its users, whether drivers or non-drivers, to help keep their community safe by reporting reckless driving and other traffic violations that would normally go unnoticed and endanger both people and property.
The 21-year-old explained that the application operates where the user files a report by uploading the multimedia file of the violation that was observed and recorded by means of dashboard camera footage, an image of the infraction, or an image of the car’s number plate and written details of the incident.
After the report has been received, reviewed, and deemed an offence by the application’s operator, the driver is issued the appropriate citation and a profile is created for this driver where it is updated to reflect the new citation and that of past or future violations.
“It involves real punishment here, so the system would be integrated within the Ministry of Transport [and] the Transport Authority,” Edwards said.
After all reports have been submitted, the user’s location information will be utilised in the creation of a heat map analysis system that will demonstrate the areas that are accident hotspots and will help to inform motorists about which areas to try and avoid during certain times of the day.
Additionally, users will be able to view a list of reported incidents and filter their search based on date and time of report, violation type, and location and may also view the photos or videos attached to each reported incident.
“I use social media a lot, and I follow a lot of public pages, and every day – there are 365 days in a year, and so far in the [more than] 200 days gone – there have been almost 250 fatal accidents. So we’re, basically, having two to three accidents a day that is being recorded, and at minimum, one of them is deemed fatal,” he said of why he decided to create SafeDrive.
According to a report prepared by Deidre Hudson-Sinclair, director of the Road Safety Unit of the Island Traffic Authority (ITA), as of October 17, three hundred and twenty-four road fatalities have been recorded of which 299 were fatal collisions.
The parishes of Westmoreland, St Andrew, and St Ann have accounted for the highest number of fatalities to date.
Last year, there were 488 road fatalities on the nation’s roadways. It is projected that by the end of 2023, there will be 430 road fatalities.
DEFINITE NEED
The computer science major stated that “there’s definite need” to get his application off the ground as the majority of those who die in these accidents were pedestrians and children and not the driver of the car.
“The car is designed to protect the driver and the passengers but not the persons getting hit [by] the car, so that’s the need for SafeDrive,” he continued.
Edwards is hopeful that his application will be completed within the next six months. It is expected to be compatible with iOS and Android, where users will be able to access it through a mobile app or web application.
To use SafeDrive, the user will need a camera to upload videos and/or photographs, a global positioning system, and Internet connectivity to submit reports.
“I think this is one way to add another level of punishment, another level of [being] reported ... if you commit a one violation you may get away with it - no system is perfect- but if you are known in the community as that guy that speeds, overtakes illegally [and so on], you will have a lot of violations, and it will show on the system so other drivers, road users, lawmen, can see that you’ve committed a lot of violations,” he said.
He added that SafeDrive was not only beneficial to the public and the Government, but also to insurance companies which often have to pay out billions of dollars per annum in insurance claims.