Health Alert: Stop Texting While Driving App
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The top distraction while driving is a cell phone. Whether you're chatting or texting, it can be dangerous.
Now one doctor is trying to do something about it. Health Reporter Stephanie Stahl has the details.
More than 15 percent of all fatal crashes are due to distracted driving. It's a serious problem, and local bans from using them behind the wheel don't seem to matter. Now an app may be able to do the trick.
Talking and texting while driving. You see it everywhere.
"I have two grandkids, and they're all texters, you know, so I worry about that all the time when they're on the road. Are they doing this in a safe manner?" wondered Roy Montgomery, a grandfather.
With thousands of people getting injured and dying every year from accidents related to distracted driving, one doctor hopes an app can help curb the problem.
"We have to make a difference," said Dr. Jacob DeLaRosa, a heart surgeon. He put together a team to develop a smart phone application called One Life at a Time.
The app uses your phones GPS, and if you go over 15 miles an hour, the app shuts down the ability to text and make or answer phone calls. There's one downside: it can't tell whether you're the driver or just a passenger. So if you're not driving, you can get locked out of your phone.
Dr. DeLaRosa says it's worth it to potentially save a life.
"If somebody can be saved from being in an accident, a life can be saved. That's really what we're working for," said Dr. DeLaRosa.
Dr. DeLaRosa said they hope to develop a new version that can tell if someone is a driver or passenger.
The app is currently available for android smart phones, and will soon be available for other phones.
It costs about five dollars, with the money going to charity.
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Reported by Stephanie Stahl, CBS 3
