According to Minister Alan Ganoo, the new and modern system will improve the existing one that was a paper-based process deemed cumbersome. The aim of the project to the tune of Rs 14 Million including Rs.2.5 Million for the purchase of 80 tablets, is to ensure quality of data in terms of accuracy, consistency, completeness, integrity and timeliness.
The RCDMS is driven by iMAAP, a software developed by the world recognised firm, Transport Research Laboratory, UK, and will be implemented with a partnership with the State Informatics Limited Mauritius . The system was adopted by Tamil Nadu in 2009, and it successfully helped to bring down the number of road accidents and fatalities from 13.39 for every 10,000 vehicles in 2006 to 10.09 in 2010.
Road traffic injury are the leading cause of deaths in Mauritius, and deplored that last year, some 144 persons lost their lives on our roads and hundreds were either severely or slightly injured. This is a clear reminder to all of us that using the road involves high safety risks, while adding that everyone has a role to play to make commuting on our road safe.
Bad driving behaviour is the leading cause of road accidents and if the numerous other reasons are identified, remedial actions can be taken to bring down number of road fatalities. To this end, the new RCDMS will analyse that data scientifically and detect contributory factors leading to accidents, to finally come up with measures. This will enable the analysis of the How, Where, and Why of road accidents so as to allow planning and implementation of remedial measures. RCDMS makes use of web and mobile applications, and that data collection by police officers at crash scenes will now be done by means of tablet and data and will be automatically uploaded at the Government Online Centre. He also announced that the data collected under the system will be used by The National Road Safety Observatory which will be set up through a collaboration between the Ministry and the University of Mauritius.