Barber Insurance Agency Blog
Five Applcations that Promote Car Safety
Surprisingly, the biggest issue on the road is no longer intoxication, but unfocused driving caused by technologies such as text messaging and smart phone-directed emails. Text messaging while driving is now shown to be 6 times more likely to result in an accident that intoxicated driving.
The brainpower used in driving decreases by a staggering 40% when the driver is engaged in a telephone conversation. Because of this, 80% of all car crashes are now related to distractions such a music or cell phone usage.
In fact, statistics show that distracted driving had become the top killer of teenagers in the United States; some 48% of drivers between the ages of 18 and 24 admit to breaking bans on using cell phones while operating a moving vehicle.
So what can you do to ensure that you and your family are driving safely, away from the technological temptations that have become so commonplace today? Here are five solutions that harness the very technologies that can be so dangerous and use them in order to limit cell phone use to appropriate times:
This application is direct both at parents and companies that rely on professional drivers. It utilizes the GPS technologies of smart phones to determine the location and speed of the cell phone and compare them against custom speed thresholds on the account. If it detects a speed above the set threshold it locks the phone’s screen to prevent use. This application offers both a basic free option, as well as customizable family plans.
Another application that provides both family and business options, DriveSafe.ly uses automated speech technology to read texts and emails aloud to drivers, eliminating the need to compromise the drivers’ focus on the road.
ZoomSafer is a corporate risk management oriented application. It offers multiple plans that allow employers insight into employee driving behaviors or lock phone while in motion as well as family plans to remove temptations or prevent dangerous behaviors. The mobile option even gives the option for automatic response messages to reply to incoming texts and emails.
This is a teen-directed application that runs in the background of a cell phone and shuts down distracting aspects of the phone (such as texting applications) when it detects movement over 3mph. Furthermore, it allows parents to password protect the application such that it cannot be disables by tech-savvy teens. Text Gauge is a free application for Android users.
Cell Control is compatible with a huge range of mobile devices and integrates directly into a vehicle’s electronic system to determine the vehicle’s state of motion and then to enact appropriate control policies. One large benefit from this application is that it does not restict cell phone access when users are engaged in other non-dangerous modes of transport such as buses, ferries, etc.
