Safety apps promoted as way to avoid texting while driving

Want to remove the temptation to use your cellphone while driving? There's an app for that.

Several mobile carriers offer apps that allow smartphones to auto-reply to texts, alerting the senders that you are driving, and send incoming calls to voice mail. AT&T offers DriveMode, T-Mobile has DriveSmart and Sprint has Drive First. The apps require a monthly or annual subscription.

Third-party apps available include Safe Drive, Safe Guard, DriveSafe.ly, Phone Guard, SecuraFone and more. Features on the apps vary slightly, and some are fee-based.

Some apps can be enabled automatically by detecting driving conditions using a phone's GPS feature. Some apps allow users to select which features to enable to accommodate drivers with, for example, hands-free voice capabilities in their cars.

In October, Nevada outlawed the use of mobile devices by drivers unless they are hands-free . Fines are $50 for the first offense, $100 for the second and $250 for the third and subsequent offenses.

Anti-texting apps are being pushed because texting while driving increases the chance of an accident by 23 times, according to a study by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute.

To learn just how dangerous it is, there is no substitute for experience.

AT&T's It Can Wait campaign is targeted toward soon-to-be drivers nationwide. AT&T brought a driving simulator to Green Valley High School, 460 Arroyo Grande Blvd., May 23 to give driver's education students the chance to try out their texting-while-driving skills on a bustling, virtual neighborhood street.

Texting is the top mode of communication among teens. They send about 60 texts a day, according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project.

AT&T's simulator, a modified Hyundai Accent, is touring the country, stopping at high schools in different cities. Students are given a simple sentence to text while driving down a neighborhood street active with cars, pedestrians and an errant dog.

Sgt. John Gayer of the Henderson Police Department was at the event and spoke to students about the severity of texting while driving.

"If you're texting and driving, you exhibit the same behaviors as a drunk driver," Gayer said. "You're driving drunk, basically."

July and August are the deadliest months for 16- and 17-year-old drivers, according to the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety.

Green Valley student council president Jade Welton, 17, said she was glad her school received the visit.

"I think this is a very good program," she said. "It's very realistic, like a video game. The steering goes a little bit quicker than it would normally."

Welton said her parents are stern with her and her siblings about texting while driving. She said she does not do it but many of her classmates do.

"It's not a conversation (students) normally have, but (texting while driving) happens very often, too often," Welton said. "(Students) are not serious enough. There are so many accidents that happen with people texting and driving, and it's so silly. It's so easily preventable."

For more information visit att.com/itcanwait.

Contact View education reporter Jeff Mosier at jmosier@viewnews.com or 224-5524.