TextArrest Gives Teenagers Better Excuse to Hate Parents with New Safe Driving Mobile Application and Service

This is the most awesome app I have seen to date! It need to become a standard application on every phone out there. I hate you people that text and drive, I don’t like people that talk and drive either, but texting and driving is just stupidity on wheels. I can’t count how many people I’ve seen swerving on the road while they’re texting someone, what’s so important that you’re risking your lives and the lives of others out there that just can’t wait until you get where you’re going?

The app works by using the GPS in your phone and sensing when you’re going over 5mph, and it shuts off the texting and even the calling functions of your phone. Right now it only supports Android and BlackBerry phones but there’s more coming.

Yes this needs to be a standard app on all phones!

With teenagers in the United States well known for rebelling against parents and family members that do things in teens’ best interests, TextArrest today announced a new safe driving mobile application designed to keep drivers’ eyes on the road and off their phones. The new TextArrest app is sure to have teens texting “I h8 my parNts!” to their friends – just not while they are driving a car.

“Any doctor who has spent time in emergency rooms as I have will tell you that safe driving is no joke”

From the Safe Driving Solutions Pavilion at the CTIA WIRELESS exposition, TextArrest is today launching TextArrest Free™ and TextArrest Family™, an application and service designed to keep teenagers and family members safe while driving by disabling texting, instant messaging, calling, Web browsing and other phone-based distractions that should not be used while sitting behind the wheel of a moving vehicle. TextArrest not only protects drivers from the dangerous temptation to use their phone while driving, it also offers parents a better way to supervise the location and driving patterns of their family members with cell phones.

A January 2010 Nielsen study of the phone bills of 40,000 US teenagers found that teenagers send text messages an average of 10 times per hour while they are awake – exceeding 3100 text message per month. Many teenagers text and drive, which has been proven the world over to be a deadly combination. In fact, as a Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI) study found, texting while driving increases the risk of motor vehicle accidents by 2300 percent, six times greater than driving while intoxicated. Even though the American Automobile Association (AAA) is having success in passing anti-texting while driving laws across the United States, teenagers are still sending texts from behind the wheel of moving cars.

TextArrest Free

TextArrest Free is a free smartphone application that automatically switches off text message and calling functions while the phone is in motion. TextArrest expects teenagers to hate features such as:

• Integration with a phone’s GPS system to determine the speed of a moving vehicle.
• Automatic switching off of text messaging and calling functions after a phone is detected to be traveling faster than 5 MPH.
• A customizable auto response message from the user to inform people sending text messages that their messages will be delivered once the user stops driving.

For parents and people who supervise the use of more than one family mobile phone, TextArrest also comes as an affordable subscription based service that expands the feature set available in TextArrest Free and adds Web based management to better control how mobile phones are used when family members are driving.

TextArrest Family

Managed through an easy-to-use Web based dashboard, TextArrest Family gives parents control over how and under what circumstances mobile phone features can be used, along with the ability to pinpoint on a map the location and driving routes for phones under their supervision. TextArrest expects teenagers to especially hate:

• A Web-based management portal that lets parents take note of all phone use activity.
• A geofencing feature that lets parents draw boundaries on a map, such as around a school, and alerts parents when a phone travels beyond geofenced boundaries.
• Customizable alerts to notify parents in real-time when phones are traveling beyond speed limits, including a report of what speed at which the phone was clocked.
• Customizable alerts to notify parents in real-time when TextArrest settings are tampered with or overridden.

The TextArrest applications include settings to switch a phone from “driver” to “passenger” mode for people who aren’t driving or may be riding on a bus or a train. The passenger override restores those features typically switched off by TextArrest while a phone is in motion. Both TextArrest Free and TextArrest Family let users call emergency services under any condition, even while a phone is in motion.

“Any doctor who has spent time in emergency rooms as I have will tell you that safe driving is no joke,” said TextArrest Chairman Dr. David Lanzkowsky, M.D., an emergency room doctor that founded the company in 2009. “Parents like me know that doing what’s right for our families is not always popular with our kids. Teenagers may ‘hate’ their parents for putting an end to texting and other distractions while driving, but they don’t always see the larger context that accidents caused by these distractions all too often end in serious injuries or the loss of life, and more frequently result in steep financial costs and potentially bankruptcies. TextArrest wants to give teens the luxury of hating their parents for long healthy lifetimes.”

The TextArrest technology takes advantage of features common in today’s smartphones to set and enforce parameters for the safe use of mobile phones inside moving vehicles. All versions of TextArrest require only a simple application download and no hardware changes to disable text messaging and calling functions. There are no set-up or activation charges, and TextArrest Family subscriptions start at $4.99/month to cover up to five family members, a price well below competing services that have fewer capabilities. At launch TextArrest supports Android and BlackBerry smartphones with additional platforms coming soon.

Later this spring TextArrest will announce its TextArrest Fleet™ service, designed to make people who drive company vehicles hate their IT departments and fleet managers.

Visit http://www.textarrest.com to download TextArrest Free or subscribe to TextArrest Family today.

Visit TextArrest at CTIA in booth #6075 for a live demo or to learn more about the TextArrest service.

About TextArrest:

TextArrest is a software company dedicated to making the roads safer by eliminating distractions created when drivers use mobile phones. TextArrest uses features common in today’s smartphones to set and enforce parameters for safe use of mobile phones inside moving vehicles. From disabling text messaging and calling capabilities while a person is driving to tracking the movement and location of mobile phones in transit, TextArrest provides control, coupled with a Web-based portal delivering real time information on phone usage and location. Founded in 2009 by a doctor with emergency room and trauma center background, TextArrest is the solution for concerned parents, dispatchers and fleet managers to the growing problem of people driven to distraction by mobile phone use in cars.

Visit http://www.textarrest.com to download TextArrest Free or subscribe to TextArrest Family today.