Thanks, Apple! (It’s About Time)

When Apple releases the iOS 11 operating system later this year, a long-awaited, life-saving feature will be included.  The new iPhone distracted driving mode, (actually called “Do Not Disturb While Driving”) will silence notifications while you’re driving, and auto-reply to text messages as well.

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Maybe you’ve already read statistics on the 100 deadliest days of summer for teen drivers, but there’s more that you need to know! And more importantly, more that you can do to protect yourself!

Statistics for the 100 Deadliest Days of Summer

Yes, the statistics are alarming and tragic for the time-frame of Memorial Day to Labor Day, historically known as the ‘100 deadliest days’. This year, AAA reports that the number of teen drivers involved in fatal collisions is up 10% overall, and specifically in the summer months is increased by 26% compared to other months of the year.

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The Viral Unicorn Frappe

No Starbucks drink has ever been as magical as the new Unicorn Frappuccino (at least marketing magic if nothing else).  In a matter of just a few days, it has swept the nation. Some praise the sugar-laden drink, and although it is okay to #treatyoself occasionally, the frappe has some valid criticisms too.

The color-changing, mango-based cream frappuccino with a layer of sour is evidently so difficult to make that Starbucks baristas are flipping out. But we don’t care how magical or stressful, no drink should ever cause you to drive distracted.

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TextNinja tackles a serious public safety concern in an innovative way.  Rather than view texting while driving through the lens of punishment and control, it creates positive incentives for people to alter their behavior through a phone app where drivers will earn points for successfully refraining from texting while driving.  It also automatically silences incoming texts and sends a customized reply message, which alerts your friends that you are driving and helps raise awareness about the dangers of texting and driving.  The app even has a Campaign feature that allows community organizations to share their story, motivate text-free driving, AND provide a working solution to their followers who already want to drive safely, while quantifying their efforts through a points system so they can see the effectiveness of their message.
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The Statistical Cost of Texting and Driving

In part 1, we explored the statistics on distracted driving to find out how many text message distractions it takes to cause a collision behind the wheel. We found that it takes on average around 97,000 text distractions to cause a crash. Now, let’s put a monetary value on this concept, and see if the risk is relevant enough to prevent texting and driving!

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