海角大神

My son Sam has an idea for an app to help stop texting while driving: 鈥淲hen you鈥檙e driving and a friend texts you, the app sends back an automatic text saying 鈥楽orry, I鈥檓 driving, I can鈥檛 answer your text. Back 2 u soon.鈥欌�� Or, for phone calls, the app lets you record yourself in a message for callers that says something like that.

Sam suggested that when he saw I was writing about a new survey finding that 44% of 16-to-24-year-old drivers say friends are the biggest influence on them for curbing their texting while driving. It found that parents were the next greatest influence at 33%.

The survey, by the Ad Council, was released today for 鈥淪top the Texts Day,鈥� from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the US鈥檚 state attorneys general, and the Ad Council. It also found that 60% of those drivers said they鈥檇 texted while driving. Of that 60%, the majority said they鈥檇 continue to do so even knowing that TWD causes accidents.

On the solution side, 88% said a law against TWD would encourage them to stop or text less while driving, and 96% 鈥渟aid large fines, a suspended license and/or jail time, higher insurance rates and other financial and legal consequences would encourage them鈥� to stop. Fining was a suggestion made by a commercial driver on the 鈥淪top the Texts鈥� Facebook page. He said that, when commercial drivers 鈥済et caught using a hand held device,鈥� they get fined $2,700 and their company gets fined $11,000.

As for software help: There is a new game app for upping drivers鈥� awareness of their phone use behind the wheel. Maybe its creators will add Sam鈥檚 feature (I couldn鈥檛 find an app in Apple鈥檚 store which does what he proposed).

Logically called 鈥淎pp4Drivers,鈥� it鈥檚 available now for the iPhone and soon for Android phones, says the 1:12 video on YouTube about it. Players lose points for answering calls and texts.

But it鈥檚 not just about phone use in the car: 鈥淩easonable acceleration, smooth turns, and easy braking get better scores.鈥� The app 鈥渒eeps a tally of any phone use while it鈥檚 on,鈥� so teens can actually show their parents how responsible their driving is. I like the game aspect.

AT&T has an app that does provide exactly what Sam had in mind 鈥� an 鈥渁way text.鈥� It鈥檚 called DriveMode, an idea from AT&T consumer advocate Shavonne Jones, who lost a friend of 32 years in a car accident caused by another driver who was texting while driving on a highway.

For now, DriveMode is only for Android and BlackBerry (get going, Apple!). AT&T spokesperson Andrea Brands told me it has already been downloaded 51,000 times.

For parents who are at home and want to know where their child is while driving but don鈥檛 want them to text their location, there鈥檚 Glympse鈥檚 tracking with a time limit (the tagline鈥檚 cute: 鈥淪hare your where鈥�); I like that its use is preceded by parent-child communication). For more TWD controls apps check out our friends at iKeepSafe.org.

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