Texting and Driving Aps Can Save Lives



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By Susan Heckler
Got teens? Got texters! It’s a given. Even the grown-ups can’t help but look at their phones, without hesitation, even while speeding down the highway. The adults in the situation need to stop this dangerous behavior immediately. Even the most experienced drivers should never take their eyes and attention off the roads. Texting in front of your children while driving gives them free license to do the same. Let’s face it, what is so important in that text that is worth risking a life over? Some thinking points: • It takes 4.6 seconds to type two words; this is the amount of time it takes your car to travel the length of a football field, traveling at 55 MPH, • Driver distraction was the cause of 18 percent of all fatal crashes – with 3,328 people killed and 421,000 people wounded. • Insurance does not cover damages or liability for accidents caused by texting and driving. • Civil lawsuits for damages can be pursued in accidents involving texting. • 14 youths a day die from texting behind the wheel • The average cost of a single crash with injuries is more than $120,000. Our teens are not experienced and texting is their conversation method of choice so that makes them even more vulnerable to the bad decision. Parents, check out some of the many aps like uber app out there that can stop your new driver from endangering lives: • Textecution cuts off texting ability if the device is moving faster than 10 MPH. Any attempt to send a text message at more than 10mph brings up a window that simply says “you are moving too fast to use this application”. • OneProtect provides even more control for parents. Once the app is installed on a teen’s phone the parent can turn the app on remotely, making it impossible for a teen to turn the app off without the parents finding out. • AT&T DriveMode automatically sends a customized reply to incoming texts, just like an “out-of-office” autoreply. It also disables all ingoing and outgoing calls and web browsing. • DriveSafe.ly reads text messages and emails out loud in real time, including shortcuts like LOL, and sends an autoresponse. You can even pick whether to have texts read to you with a male or female voice, or based upon the gender of the text sender. • SafeCell aims to curb distracted driving in a couple of ways with a message letting the caller/texter know that you’re driving and can’t be reached. • Cellcontrol is a subscription-based service that features a device inserted under the dashboard and an accompanying app that blocks your teen from sending or receiving texts while driving. • Drive Safe Mode prevents texting and emailing while driving. • Live2Txt lets you block incoming texts and calls while driving. You can also check with your cellphone provider as some of them have apps or services built in to the phone. That text or email may have contained something really important…or not. In either case, you should all live to tell about it.