This is the 32nd post in a blog series to be published in 2021 by the Secretariat on behalf of the AU High-Level Panel on Emerging Technologies (APET) and the Calestous Juma Executive Dialogues (CJED)

The African Road Safety Charter was built on road safety decisions in Africa in the Accra Declaration by Ministers of Transport and Health, meeting at the African Road Safety Conference in February 2007.[1] Consequently, this charter resulted in establishing a Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020 by the United Nations[2] and the Africa Road Safety Action Plan 2011-2020[3], adopted by the Conference of Ministers Responsible for Transport in Luanda in 2011.[4] The objectives of the African Road Safety Charter were to accelerate the implementation of national, regional, and continental road safety programmes, contribute to the coordination of road safety across the African continent, and facilitate the formulation of comprehensive road safety policies at national levels. The charter was also to enhance the private sector, civil society organisations, and non-governmental organisations participation in road safety issues and promote the management of the compilation, treatment, and dissemination of road safety data.[5] Furthermore, Chapter IV of the Road Safety Management focused on creating road safety lead agencies, institutional strengthening of road safety lead agencies, road safety strategies, road safety data management system, and road safety collaboration.[6]

However, with all these policy enactments and efforts, road traffic accidents in Africa are still concerning as they are occurring at an alarming rate. Annually, approximately 1.35 million people die on roads, and over 50 million people are injured due to road accidents globally.[7] Almost 93% of all road traffic accidents occur within low- and middle-income countries, even though these developing countries constitute approximately 60% of the world's motor vehicles.[8] Unfortunately, more than half of all road traffic deaths occur among pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcyclists. The highest number of accidents are registered among the demographic of young people ranging between 15 and 29 years old.

Regrettably, Africa registers more road accidents when compared to the rest of the world, with 26.6 deaths per 100,000 population, as of 2018. This is followed by Asia, with 20.7 deaths per 100,000 population. Europe and the United States of America are registering 9.3 and 15.6 deaths per 100,000 population, respectively[9]. The World Health Organisation has reported that road traffic deaths are now the eighth leading cause of death for all age groups. In other words, road accidents are killing more people than Tuberculosis (TB) and Human Immunodeficiency Virus, Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS).[10]

Besides losing lives due to road accidents, road accidents are also a huge economic burden to African countries. For example, there should be healthcare provisions for the people involved in accidents. In some cases, there is a need to process insurance claims and legal coverage that may be costly to governments and insurance companies. Most importantly, road accidents also deprive African countries of a productive and skilled workforce. In some cases, the work environments for the injured people may require costly readjustments to create a conducive environment and accommodate the handicapped workforce. Otherwise, if such readjustments are not implemented, injured workers may not be able to adapt to the new realities and may have to be reassigned or lose their source of income.

On African roads, most accidents are caused by rather avoidable circumstances. For example, numerous accidents have been caused by distractions such as calling and texting using mobile phones, eating food and drinking, and applying make-up while driving. In some cases, drinking alcoholic beverages and driving while intoxicated is significantly causing road accidents on African roads. These distractions cause motor vehicle drivers to lose focus from the road, and thus, resulting in accidents. Reckless overspeeding commonly causes road accidents as well as unsafe overtaking. Regrettably, African countries predominantly have poorly constructed and maintained roads, which is sometimes accompanied by bad weather conditions.

Despite the significant efforts by African governments to alleviate road traffic accidents, there has been a steady and continual increment of road traffic deaths in Africa. As such, the African Union High Level Panel on Innovation and Emerging Technologies (APET) is encouraging African countries to adopt roads and vehicles safety technologies so to reduce and prevent road accidents.

To demonstrate the successful adoption of roads safety technologies, the Democratic Republic of Congo Capital City Kinshasa has installed intelligent robot cops along its major roads to protect and enable pedestrians to cross the city roads safely.[11] These intelligent robots are equipped with cameras that can record everything happening along the roads. Even at night, the robots operate and collect data, and they are enabled by infra-red radiation. Furthermore, Kinshasa's robot cops are designed to correlate the functions of human traffic officers and traffic lights. As such, these anthropomorphic robots can raise and bend their arms to stop passing vehicles and let pedestrians pass.[12] These robots are also programmed to speak to pedestrians to indicate when it becomes suitable for them to cross the road.

South Africa has recorded road accidents that are claiming between 13,000 and 14,000 lives annually.[13] The predominant cause of road accidents in South Africa is over-speeding. Therefore, to address this challenge, the South African government has installed high-performance cameras suitable for intelligent traffic management systems.[14] These high-performance cameras are capable of monitoring the speed limits of passing vehicles. The drivers who do not comply with the speed limits are thereby penalised. In turn, these penalties are used as deterrents to discourage over-speeding on South African roads.

APET also encourages African countries to adopt vehicle safety technologies to develop smart and responsive vehicles on African roads. For example, some vehicles may install black box devices that can record video data coupled with acceleration sensors and connect them to a GPS receiver.[15]. These black box recording devices can capture any incidents that are happening in front of the vehicles. This recorded data is then safely stored in the device's memory card and can be used later for management purposes. As such, this technology becomes crucial when solving and clarifying road traffic-related cases. For example, South Korea utilises black boxes on vehicles, which has significantly decreased road traffic crashes.[16]

APET is acutely aware that African countries do not manufacture cars but may have car assembly units for vehicles designed in Japan, China, Germany, France, and the United States of America. In that way, the decisions on car designs are not entirely on the Member States' jurisdiction. However, Member States may still develop policy and regulatory frameworks that can guide vehicle manufacturers on basic requirements of cars that can be allowed on African roads.

For example, African countries can insist on acquiring vehicles with automatic emergency braking systems and crash imminent braking systems. These technological systems can detect when the vehicle is threatened by a crash. Such systems also enable the vehicle to slow down or halt even if the driver has failed to execute the appropriate action. On the other hand, the Dynamic Brake Support is activated when the driver brakes to reduce impact but not hard enough to circumvent an accidental occurrence. Some cars have adopted the blind spot detection system that alerts drivers if there are vehicles in their blind spots in cases where the driver is changing lanes. Other derivative blind spot detection technology systems can constantly update the driver on their blind spot's status. In some cases, the blind spot detection systems can provide warnings and information to turn their signal on.

The Lane Departure Warning technology systems utilise cameras to keep the vehicle within the lane markings.[17] When the vehicle veers off the designated lane, this technology will warn the driver and require them to signal into the next lane. A distracted driver will be able to refocus into the road and evade a sideswipe accident. Furthermore, some versions of this technology may, in turn, retain control of the vehicle to guarantee that the vehicle remains within the original lane. On the other hand, the Forward Collision Systems can measure the distance with the front vehicle and can automatically reduce the speed of the vehicle to minimise a collision impact.

Adaptive headlights are activated on the sides when the steering wheel is changing the direction of the vehicle. This enables the driver to see when on a dark road easily, and an animal jumps out onto the road, or another vehicle is in your path. In addition, the Electronic Stability Control (ECS) technology enables vehicles to avoid sliding out of control, even on rainy and snowy roads.[18] Notably, this technology reduces the vehicle's engine power by applying braking override when a run-off-road accident is about to occur. As such, the ECS technology can potentially prevent approximately 50% of the total rollovers or car crashes.

The advent of self-driving vehicles has enabled the development of a "communication between vehicles" technology that can potentially prevent head-on and pile-up collision accidents.[19] This technology utilises GPS and sensory technologies. However, this technology requires that the vehicle of interest should not only communicate with other vehicles but also cyclists and pedestrians that are near-by the vehicle. The Traction Control Systems enables vehicles to prevent their wheels from slipping and spinning on wet roads during acceleration or when the vehicle is starting to move. In contrast, the anti-lock braking system prevents the brake pads from locking but slowly lowers the pressure applied to the breaks.

Other technologies that African countries can explore and develop policy and regulatory frameworks around include, but are not limited to, auto-steering, rear cross-traffic alert, LED headlights, rear AEB, autonomous cruise control, voice control connected through a Bluetooth, anti-reckless teenage driving technology, interlock devices, drowsiness video sensor, gear shift palm detection, and phone suppression technology.[20] Therefore, by adopting these technologies, African countries reduce the risks of dying from road traffic accidents. As such, APET urges African countries to upscale these technologies so as to decrease crashes on African roads.

In conclusion, as African countries adopt road safety and vehicle safety technologies, Member States should focus on prevention technologies and awareness-raising efforts through media and other available communication platforms. Notably, preventative technologies can potentially avert accidents at the pre-crash phase and attenuate the accident's impact in the event of a collision.[21] This can be executed and adopted in conjunction with traffic enforcement enabling technologies to influence the administrative and legal systems within African countries. Adopting these technologies cannot only improve road safety and traffic protection but can also improve Africa's innovation and entrepreneurship for African societies in this field. As such, African countries are encouraged to avail funding instruments and mechanisms for research and development to enable African grown innovation and technologies within this industry. Finally, the accompanying policy frameworks and intervention mechanisms should be pursued by African countries to enhance road safety across the African continent. This should be pursued in conjunction with the Science, Technology, and Innovation Strategy for Africa (STISA-2024) and the aspirations of the African Union's Agenda 2063.

It is time to make African roads safe again and "arrive alive".

Featured Bloggers – APET Secretariat

Justina Dugbazah

Barbara Glover

Bhekani Mbuli

Chifundo Kungade

[1] https://www.arrivealive.mobi/2007-accra-declaration-on-road-safety-in-africa.

[2] https://www.arrivealive.co.za/Decade_Road_Safety/WHO_Decade_brochure_April%202011.pdf.

[3] https://au.int/sites/default/files/documents/32186-doc-road_safety_african_action_plan_for_the_global_decade_of_action_for_road_safety-e.pdf.

[4] https://au.int/sites/default/files/newsevents/workingdocuments/29705-wd-statement-cie-camt_ii-ministers_session_-_clean.pdf.

[5] https://www.ssatp.org/sites/ssatp/files/publications/HTML/Conferences/Dakar13/Presentations/Dec-10/Dec%2010-PM-Marie%20Therese%20Guiebo-EN.pdf.

[6] https://www.ssatp.org/sites/ssatp/files/publications/SSATPWP101-Road-Safety-Framework.pdf.

[7] https://www.wits.ac.za/news/latest-news/opinion/2021/2021-04/south-africa-bottom-of-the-class-for-road-safety-heres-why-this-isnt-true.html.

[8] Staton C, Vissoci J, Gong E, Toomey N, Wafula R, Abdelgadir J, et al. (2016) Correction: Road Traffic Injury Prevention Initiatives: A Systematic Review and Metasummary of Effectiveness in Low- and Middle-Income Countries. PLoS ONE 11(2): e0150150. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0150150.

[9] http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/277370/WHO-NMH-NVI-18.20-eng.pdf?ua=1.

[10] https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/02/death-rates-from-traffic-accidents-are-higher-in-africa-than-anywhere-else/.

[11] https://www.dw.com/en/intelligent-robots-save-lives-in-dr-congo/a-17717287.

[12]https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-26820565.

[13] https://repository.up.ac.za/bitstream/handle/2263/6123/087.pdf?sequence=1.

[14] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/262827694_Reducing_Road-Traffic_Accidents_on_African_Roads_through_a_Computer_Simulation_Programming_Approach.

[15] https://blogs.worldbank.org/transport/simple-technology-great-impact-road-safety.

[16] https://blogs.worldbank.org/transport/simple-technology-great-impact-road-safety.

[17] https://www.bosch-mobility-solutions.com/en/solutions/assistance-systems/lane-departure-warning/.

[18] https://www.theaa.com/driving-advice/safety/electronic-stability-control.

[19] https://static.tti.tamu.edu/tti.tamu.edu/documents/0-6848-1.pdf.

[20] https://content.ccontrols.net/blog/technology-enablers-towards-connected-and-autonomous-driving.

[21] Bonnet E, Lechat L, Ridde V (2018) What interventions are required to reduce road traffic injuries in Africa? A scoping review of the literature. PLoS ONE 13(11): e0208195. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0208195.