Distracted Driving Destroys Lives

Jim Higgins Fine Gael MEP for Ireland North West will today part take in a cross party initiative to stamp out the phenomena of texting while driving through the latest anti-messaging technology. (1) 

"This amazing technology can detect whether the phone user is the driver or a passenger and blocks the phone in the case of the former."

Studies have shown that you are eight times more likely to have an accident while texting and driving.

"Texting while driving is actually worse than drunk driving.  Many drivers are too engrossed in their phones to pay attention to the road and it results in tragic accidents which are 100% preventable."

"The problem is that people genuinely don't believe that it's dangerous - people who wouldn't dream of drunk driving will text and drive without giving it a second thought."

Studies show that when you text and drive you lose approx half of our periphery vision - "that could be a stop sign, a cyclist, a pedestrian or another car - you are blinded by you inattention." Higgins added 

"We need to embrace cutting edge technology in order to eliminate this deadly habit."

"For many of us driving is the most dangerous thing we do all day - texting and driving makes it 8 times more dangerous."

"Drivers, make your car a no phone zone."

Jim Higgins is Ireland's only member of the European Parliament's Transport and Tourism Committee

FOOTNOTE:
(1) The technology known as Anti-Messaging Technology (AMT) is unique in that it can detect the velocity of any mobile phone and distinguish through its patented “Attention Validation Sequence” whether the user of the phone is the driver or passenger.

The technology requires no hardware upgrade on the mobile handset and is compatible with all mobile handsets currently in use.

This technology sits on the mobile phone network, which means the end user cannot remove the system from the mobile phone.