Imagine that going to jail now next for murder cause you used your phone in a car… MURDER
Texting While Driving Banned for Federal Workers New York Times - Federal employees will no longer be allowed to send text messages while driving government vehicles or when driving their own cars and using cellphones paid for by the government, according to an executive order signed Wednesday night …
Gov’t seeks ban on texting truckers, bus drivers The Associated Press families of victims of accidents caused by distracted driving, who urged the government to take a strong stance against cell phone use in vehicles, whether it includes a handsfree device or not. They said technologies that prevent the mobile device from receiving e-mails or phone calls while the vehicle is in motion could help address the problem. “Everyone our age thinks we’re invincible,” said Nicole Meredith, 18, of Louisville, Ky., who totaled her car because she was texting while driving.
About a third of texting teens in the U.S. admit to texting behind the wheel, even though some said they thought it could hinder their ability to drive, according to a study by the Pew Research Center. The study by Washington, D.C.-based Pew polled 800 youth and found 82 per cent of those aged 16 to 17 have a cellphone and 76 per cent text. The poll suggests that overall, 34 per cent of teen texters aged 16 to 17 have texted while driving. The survey has an accuracy of plus or minus 3.8 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2009/11/16/consumer-teen-texting-pew.html
Thankfully there’s a simple answer to this problem for anyone with an Android phone, like the T-Mobile MyTouch, a program called Textecution.
Textecution is a program that runs on Android phones and uses the onboard GPS to know how fast the phone is moving. If it detects the phone traveling at speeds that indicate it is in a car, Textecution disables the texting functions of the phone.
But mooooom, your kid is sure to complain when you install this little application on their phone, “I need to be able to text when I am riding the bus to my soccer game! This isn’t fair!” That’s where Textecution moves from handy way to prevent teen texting to ingenious.
If your teen is moving too fast, but not the driver, they can send a request for access which will alert you and let you enable their text messaging functions with a simple text reply.
With more states putting texting while driving laws on the books, having a text addicted teen driver could get costly very quickly. Fines commonly start close to $100 and several states are trying to get laws passed that would make fines hundreds of dollars for a single offense.
On top of fines, a single accident can easily cost a few hundred for a fender bender to several thousand for a crash, not to mention the increased insurance cost for years to come.
Even though there’s nothing in place to stop your kid from removing Textecution from their phone, other than you knowing later, it is a useful tool for preventing texting while driving and keeping your kid safe and focused when they are behind the wheel.
If you don’t have an Android phone to use Textecution with perhaps you should just sit your kid down to watch this, very graphic, PSA from the UK that explains the dangers of texting while driving in an unforgettable manner.
http://www.walletpop.com/blog/2009/10/24/textecution-puts-an-end-to-teen-texting-while-driving/?icid=sphere_wpcom_inline
