App rewards drivers for putting down the phone
HOUSTON (FOX 26) - There are two types of drivers out there on the road -- those who use their phones and those who lie and say they don't.
"I use it sometimes at stoplights but not at times when I'm not supposed to," said Travis Johnson.
"I try not to." said Chameka Fontenet. "Very seldom."
But occasionally you get the truth.
"Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, of course I text. Incoming calls, talk on my phone. Pretty much everything," confessed Elizabeth Vaquera.
"Have you had any close calls?" I asked her.
“No!” she insisted.
“Are you lying to me right now?“ I pressed.
"No," she laughed.
But in reality, it's no laughing matter. According to TxDOT, in 2016 there were 109,000 crashes involving distracted driving.
That's where Marci Corry comes in.
"A lot of people know that drinking and driving is wrong. But people don’t realize that texting and driving, you are 23 times more likely to crash, which is the equivalent of four beers," said Corry.
Inspired by the distracted driving death of a local teen, she developed an app called Safe2Save. You open it when you start driving, and for every mile you drive over ten miles an hour and don't touch your phone, you get points. Get enough points and you can cash them it at businesses like Papa Johns, Chick Fila, etc. Don't worry, you can still use your phone's navigation apps. The 16-month-old ap has been in several smaller cities and is just moving into Houston now.
Expensive you ask?
"It will always be free..," Corry said.
It's aimed at younger people. The former stay-at-home mom also spreads the message about the dangers of distracted driving in schools with a distracted driving simulator. We had a social media savvy intern give it a try. Sure enough, shortly after using her phone she was crashing and crashing and crashing.
The app is closing in on 41,000 users but she's confident she will get more.
"What motivates people more to put away their phones than free food?" she asked.
They have a website, Safe2save.org.