TextArrest, the safe driving solution designed to prevent distracted driving, announced today its support of May 2010 as National Youth Traffic Safety Month with a special promotion. In support of National Youth Traffic Safety Month TextArrest is offering completely free subscriptions to its safe driving application and subscription services for the entire month of May 2010. Drivers of all ages are invited to download the TextArrest app today at www.TextArrest.com to proactively prevent the temptation to use their cell phones while driving.

By installing the TextArrest application on their smartphones drivers are taking the right step to prevent the gruesome and totally avoidable distracted driving accidents that kill thousands of people each year. During the month of May, TextArrest will offer its TextArrest Free™ and TextArrest Family™ services absolutely free to all drivers who visit the TextArrest website.

TextArrest Free is a free smartphone application that delivers the most important function of TextArrest: the automatic switching off of text message and calling functions while a phone is in motion. It features a customizable auto response from the user to inform people sending text messages that their messages will be delivered once the user has safely stopped driving.

TextArrest Family is a subscription based service that lets parents control how mobile phones are used when family members are driving. In addition to all of the safety features of TextArrest Free, TextArrest Family includes a Web-based portal where parents can pinpoint phones on a map and set up customizable alerts to be notified in real time when family members override TextArrest (in case of an emergency), exceed a set speed limit, or travel outside of a set “geofenced” location boundary.

“Doing something smart to prevent distracted driving is as easy as putting your phone in your trunk or glove box when you get in your car so you’re not tempted to use it while driving, but most teens just don’t,” says Dr. David Lanzkowsky, TextArrest Founder and Chairman. “The need to stay connected with friends and be part of the social graph is so important to some youth that they let their common sense get away from them. They rationalize it, believing they can easily text from behind the wheel without it affecting their ability to drive safely. They couldn’t be more wrong. This is exactly why we developed TextArrest. We are here to help drivers help themselves stay safe on the road.”

National Youth Traffic Safety Month, May 2010, is an annual campaign that empowers youth to take action to address youth traffic safety through peer to peer education, support for increased enforcement, and advocacy for stronger laws to protect young drivers. Established in 2007 by National Organizations for Youth Safety (NOYS), NYTSM is the largest youth-led youth traffic safety national campaign in the US. TextArrest is supporting NYTSM and invites anyone interested in preventing the senseless and completely avoidable distracted driving accidents that are killing thousands of people a year to add their support. Anyone can participate in NYTSM activities. To find project planning materials, to register your project, or to find events and celebrations in your community, visit www.noys.org.

TextArrest will kick off its support of National Youth Traffic Safety month with company-wide participation at the National Organizations for Youth Safety (NOYS) Spring Meeting on April 29th and Oprah’s No Phone Zone Day rally on April 30th, both in Washington, D.C.

For more information on “No Phone Zone Day,” and to take the No Phone Zone pledge, visit www.oprah.com/nophonezone.

To download TextArrest to your BlackBerry or Android smartphone today visit www.TextArrest.com. Support for iPhone and other mobile phone platforms is coming soon.

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. For more information on TextArrest visit www.TextArrest.com.

About National Youth Traffic Safety Month
In the U.S. more than 5,000 youth die every year in car crashes. Crashes are the number one cause of death and injury of teens in the U.S. Crashes take more lives of our youth than alcohol, drugs, violence, and suicide. Youth Traffic Safety is no accident and steps can be taken to help protect youth and encourage them to stay safe on the roads. For more information visit http://noys.org/YouthTrafSafe/toolkit.html.

Follow TextArrest on Twitter at http://twitter.com/textarrest

TextArrest today announced a new safe driving mobile application designed to keep employees’ eyes on the road and off their phones while they drive. Introduced today from the NAFA Fleet Management Association 2010 Institute & Expo in Detroit, TextArrest Fleet™ helps businesses – including executive fleets, trucking, delivery, busing, taxi and limousine companies – protect their employees, other drivers, passengers and pedestrians, company vehicles, and the corporate bottom line against death, injury, damage and lawsuits caused by distracted driving.

The Million Dollar Question

The data on distracted driving makes abundantly clear the hazards. A recent study by the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis found that each year distracted driving is responsible for 2,600 deaths, 333,000 injuries and $1.5 million in property damage claims. The study estimated the annual cost associated with cell phone related car crashes to be $43 billion.

“Half the US states have imposed bans on text and driving, with Michigan and Wisconsin passing laws just last week. But anti-texting laws do not protect businesses from irresponsible employees,” said TextArrest Chairman Dr. David Lanzkowsky, M.D., a doctor with emergency room experience who founded the company in 2009. “Juries have awarded millions of dollars in individual cases to people struck by drivers who were distracted by mobile phone usage – an amount that can put many businesses into bankruptcy. Whether you’re a pizzeria with one or two delivery drivers or a nationwide delivery service with tens of thousands of trucks and vans, is ignoring the distracted driving epidemic worth the tremendous risk to your business?”

A recent Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI) study found that texting while driving increases the risk of motor vehicle accidents by 2300 percent, six times greater than driving while intoxicated. A recent survey by the insurance carrier Nationwide found that nearly half of drivers, 45 percent, have either been hit or almost hit by a driver using a cell phone.

The Less than $1 a Month Answer

Businesses require a solution to help employees drive responsibly and better avoid the risks of damage, injury, death or financial ruin. With a development team that has built software and support systems specific to enterprise needs, TextArrest is today delivering businesses the most comprehensive tool available for mitigating the risks posed by employees distracted by their cell phones while driving.

TextArrest, which last month launched its TextArrest Free™ and TextArrest Family™ applications for individuals and families, keeps employees safe and focused on the road while driving by disabling any use of the phone that requires the screen – such as texting, instant messaging, calling, Web browsing – that should not be used by an employee 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 businesses a better way to supervise the location and driving patterns of employees through the normal use of their smartphones.

Starting at $9.99 per month to protect up to ten employees, with negotiated pricing for larger pools of drivers, TextArrest can mitigate the risk to businesses posed by employees distracted by their smartphones for less than $1 per driver per month.

The TextArrest Application

TextArrest is a smartphone application that automatically switches off text message and calling functions while the phone is in motion. All versions of TextArrest feature:

• 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 fleet managers, IT departments and people who supervise mobile employees, TextArrest Fleet offers additional features as part of an affordable subscription based service, including Web based management and monitoring tools to better control how mobile phones are used when employees are driving.

TextArrest Fleet

Managed through an easy-to-use Web based dashboard, TextArrest Fleet gives businesses 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 of phones under their supervision. TextArrest fleet helps businesses manage, audit and enforce safe driving policies with features including:

• A Web-based management portal that lets account managers take note of all phone use activity.
• Location based geofence monitoring that lets account managers draw boundaries on a map and configure customizable alerts for when a phone travels outside of the set geofenced boundaries.
• Customizable alerts to notify employers in real-time when phones are traveling beyond set speed limits, including a report of the location and the speed at which the phone was clocked.
• Customizable alerts to notify employers 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. TextArrest Fleet lets users call emergency services under any condition, even while a phone is in motion.

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. There are no set-up or activation charges, and TextArrest Fleet subscriptions start at $9.99/month to cover up to 10 employees, a price well below competing services that have fewer capabilities. At launch TextArrest Fleet supports Android and BlackBerry smartphones with iPhone and additional platform support coming soon.

Visit http://www.textarrest.com to subscribe to TextArrest Fleet today.

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.

Follow TextArrest on Twitter at http://twitter.com/textarrest

TextArrest (www.TextArrest.com), the safe driving solution for families, fleets, and safety-minded individuals, announced today its support of May 2010 as National Youth Traffic Safety month. TextArrest will kick off its traffic safety efforts through its participation at the NAFA Fleet Management Association 2010 Institute & Expo (NAFA 2010 I&E), The Risk and Insurance Management Society’s 2010 Annual Conference & Exhibition (RIMS 2010), the National Organizations for Youth Safety (NOYS) Spring Meeting, and Oprah’s No Phone Zone Day.

NAFA 2010 I&E

• Dates:  April 24-27, 2010
• Location:  Cobo Center in Detroit, Michigan
• TextArrest Booth:  #207
• About:  TextArrest executives will join commercial and government fleet professionals at NAFA’s 2010 I&E to conduct business development meetings and demonstrate the ways that companies can benefit from using the TextArrest safe driving solutions to eliminate distracted driving and reduce the risk of accidents caused by mobile phone use from behind the wheel. For more information on this event visit: http://www.nafaiande.org/

RIMS 2010

• Dates:  April 25-29, 2010
• Location:   Boston Convention & Exhibition Center in Boston, Massachusetts
• TextArrest Booth:  #101
• About:  TextArrest executives will join some 10,000 risk and insurance professionals for this five-day event to discuss and demonstrate how the TextArrest safe driving solution fits into the future of insurance coverage, offering policy holders extra safety and value while reducing the overall incidents of accidents and insurance liabilities for carriers. For more information on this event visit: http://www.rims.org/annualconference/RIMS2010/

NOYS Spring Meeting

• Dates:  April 29-30, 2010
• Location:  Washington, D.C.
• About:  National Organizations for Youth Safety (NOYS) is an effective coalition that develops collaboration between national organizations, businesses, and government agencies that focus on youth safety and health. NOYS members unite the power of youth led and youth serving organizations, businesses and government agencies to address issues such as distracted driving, and empower youth to take action and lead through peer to peer education and service learning. TextArrest executives will join NOYS members, along with Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood, to discuss distracted driving issues and legislation, and to put in place plans and campaigns for programs that work towards solutions to the number one killer of teens in the US – - traffic accidents.

Oprah’s No Phone Zone Day

• Dates:  Friday, April 30, 2010
• Location:  Washington, D.C.
• About:  Oprah Winfrey and Harpo Studios are taking a stand against distracted driving, launching a new public service announcement campaign and joining forces with some of the country’s preeminent transportation safety organizations to declare Friday, April 30 the first national “No Phone Zone Day.” TextArrest will participate in the large-scale effort to honor victims of distracted driving. “No Phone Zone Day” will also educate and activate Americans to end the deadly driving habits that kill nearly 6,000 Americans a year, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
  
  On Friday April 30, The Oprah Winfrey Show will present a special live episode devoted to ending distracted driving. In conjunction with the episode, TextArrest executives will participate in Harpo Studios’ “No Phone Zone Day” viewing rally to be held in Washington, D.C.  For more information on “No Phone Zone Day,” and to take the No Phone Zone pledge, visit www.oprah.com/nophonezone.

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. For more information on TextArrest visit www.TextArrest.com.

About National Youth Traffic Safety Month
In the U.S. more than 5,000 youth die every year in car crashes. Crashes are the number one cause of death and injury of teens in the U.S.  Crashes take more lives of our youth than alcohol, drugs, violence, and suicide. Youth Traffic Safety is no accident and steps can be taken to help protect youth and encourage them to stay safe on the roads. For more information visit http://noys.org/YouthTrafSafe/toolkit.html.

A group of local Sandpoint teenagers has been selected as a finalist in The National Act Out Loud competition, a contest sponsored by Allstate Insurance to promote the dangers of distracted driving. Winners of the video campaign contest collect a $10,000 cash prize and the benefit of knowing they are rallying for an important cause that can have a major positive impact on teen drivers.

When Sandpoint teens Kipling and Rio Pedersen joined with videographer and Team Advisor, Justin Landis, to submit a project proposal in an effort to win the national Act Out Loud competition, they didn’t think they would really make it to the finals. But they did. Realizing the magnitude of the impending task of carrying out the proposal, they wisely beefed up their team to include teens John Mares, Damen Rodriguez, and Elaina Arriondo.

We are thrilled to have made it this far,” says 15-year-old Team Leader, Kipling Pedersen. “We realize that to bring home the huge prize for our school, represent Idaho, and execute our proposal, we’ll need to determine the weak areas and fill in the holes with strong team members. It’s going to be a lot of work but should be a great challenge!”

The national Act Out Loud competition, sponsored by Allstate Insurance, received almost 100 proposals from groups of teens designed to help deter distracted teen driving. Twenty groups from twenty different states have been selected from across the nation to begin projects that are designed to attract public attention and raise awareness of the dangers of the road. As the Sandpoint team representing the state of Idaho, the “Fiscal Jackhammers” stand poised to win a $20,000 purse to be shared with their high school, principal, teammates and adviser.

Each group has been awarded $1,000 and a video camera with which to record team progress, community events, and leadership participation. As part of National Youth Traffic Safety Month in April, each team will attempt to educate and prepare their city and state for the upcoming summer months, one of the deadliest seasons of the year for teen drivers.

It’s a really great opportunity to help save teen lives, and we are excited to make a difference,” says Co-leader Elaina Arriondo. “The team is ready to begin our month long vigil against the number one killer of teens today: distracted driving.”

Idaho’s bordering state, Washington, recently banned cell phone use while driving, and the Idaho Senate just outlawed texting while driving. Sandpoint Community Support Leader and Idaho District One Senator, Shawn Keough, is looking forward to promoting the team and its goals in any way she can.

As a Senator in Idaho, I’m very interested in anything we can do to make the Idaho’s roads safer,” says Keough. “It’s great to see teens getting out there and doing something proactive to help educate, inform, and hopefully save the lives of their peers.”

The team of Sandpoint teens also had the opportunity to work with a local company that developed a smartphone application called TextArrest (www.TextArrest.com) to help keep teen drivers focused on the road and not on their phones. Conceived of by a doctor with emergency room experience, TextArrest was developed and then brought to market by Sandpoint-based MetaXpert which has market-tested the mobile app with local teen drivers.

“Sandpoint teens were some of the earliest beta testers of the TextArrest application and their feedback played a lead role in the safe driving solution’s development,” says MetaXpert CEO, Charles Manning. “This contest presents the perfect opportunity for young people to communicate about a very serious subject in a way that their peers will understand and accept. It is our hope that these videos can have a major and lasting positive impact, reducing distracted driving across the board with the teen drivers who need to hear this message the most.”

The Sandpoint team’s current activity will be posted on Facebook as Fiscal Jackhammer (http://fiscaljackhammers.com), where fans will be able to watch interviews, read about upcoming events, and track the team’s progress.

The winner of the Act Out Loud competition will be determined by public voting. From May 10th through May 21st, voters will be able to access each team by way of actoutloud.org, and may place one vote per day until voting is closed.

For more information or to help Idaho (and Sandpoint) win this auspicious award, please send an email to fjactoutloud@gmail.com (you’ll be sent a reminder to vote), or visit http://fiscaljackhammers.com to fan Fiscal Jackhammers on Facebook.

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.

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.

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