An End To Distracted Driving

Posted in Car accidents on April 25, 2016

A recent study by Virginia Tech has found that drivers more than double their crash risk when they choose to engage in distracting activities that require them to take their eyes off the road. The study collected data from over 3,500 participants from 6 different locations across the United States. It was also found that drivers engage in distracting activity more than 50% of the time they are driving. Distracted driving was anything that that requires drivers to take their eyes off the road to use their phone, read or write, or use a touchscreen menu on their car dashboard.
With apps, selfies and instant messaging platforms being all the rage lately, it only makes sense that innovators have come up with ways to exploit the opportunity to reduce the risk of harm from distracted driving.

1. The SMARTwheel – invented by a teenager for teenagers. This is a sensored wheel that will alert parents through an app if their teen has their hands off the wheel for more than 4 seconds. The creative teenager that invented the SMARTwheel, T.J. Evarts has made waves with his invention and even appeared on Shark Tank. When asked why he invented the SMARTwheel, Evarts replied that he saw the invention as a way to ease parents’ concerns when their children start commandeering vehicles on their own, and help to limit the bevy of distractions routinely challenging drivers, a problem that has only grown worse with mobile technology. As this device is aimed at young drivers and teenagers it can be seen as the tattle-tale of distracted drivers.

2. The Wheel Watcher – having the same concept as the SMARTwheel, this device is aimed at both young and experienced drivers. Slightly more obnoxious, the Wheel Watcher will sound a “buzzing” noise of escalating volume when hands are removed from the wheel for more than 7 seconds. The product intends to encourage drivers to maintain two hands on the wheel.

3. The Apple-invented texting preventer – Apple techs invented an app that would sense when a driver is behind the wheel and automatically shut off an iPhones texting capability. Differing from wheel sensor devices, this technology can be used incognito without the need for installing any modification to a vehicle. The invention also targets young drivers and features a parental lock-out function that disables user-selectable smartphone apps associated with a specific key or phone. As noted in the patent document for this technology the intention for this mechanism would be to address the concerns of parents and ultimately support the creation of legislation that would require all handheld computing devices to disable texting while driving.

As personal injury attorneys, we encourage our clients to do anything it takes to stay safe on the road.Larry R. Williams, PLLC. Honest Advice, it’s what we do.