You’ve heard the statistics: nearly 6000 dead and over 500,000 injured. The death and destruction on our roads continues, and at a recent safety summit in Washington, D.C., the experts are blaming cell phones.
A device at the recent 2012 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), received a big award for stopping texting while driving.
A company called “Scosche” introduced CellControl. The electronic device plugs into a computer port in your car and after downloading an app to your, or your child’s, smartphone, it restricts cell phone use if the vehicle is moving.
The CellControl device sends the vehicle’s speed data over a Bluetooth connection to the smartphone application, and if the vehicle is moving, the smartphone application disables the cell phone screen and prevents texting or emailing.
The device works with phones from Android, Blackberry, Symbian, and Windows Mobile 5 and 6 devices. There is no explanation why this device is not compatible with the iPhone.
If your child is tech savy and you worry about he or she disabling the device, Scosche claims that CellControl is teenager tamper resistant. If the device is disabled after the software is installed, then the software will send an email to the parent.
Since this device is wirelessly connected to the car’s computer, this system should not interfere with texting, browsing or any other mobile phone function while riding a taxi, bus, subway, or train.
The CellControl device sells for about $125.
At Davis Law Group in Asheville, North Carolina, our car accident attorneys see a large number of serious injury or death cases caused by someone recklessly texting while driving. We sincerely hope that you take action to stop your loved ones from engaging in this potentially deadly activity before someone else becomes another statistic. We have written several other articles about similar devices and software that can also help stop texting while driving.