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"  There have been numerous studies indicating that you&amp;#039;re much more likely to crash a car if you&amp;#039;re on the phone, and significantly more so if you&amp;#039;re texting \u2014 23 times more likely, actually. Studies also show that even when people are aware of the dangers of texting while driving, it doesn&amp;#039;t deter them. Call it the &amp;quot;not me&amp;quot; syndrome, if you will.  For this reason, I feel it&amp;#039;s better to force it out of sight and out of mind. Don&amp;#039;t give yourself the option of answering the phone or texting by using one of the latest text blockers. Most of these applications work using GPS on smartphones to determine how fast you&amp;#039;re moving. Most then halt calls, text, and emails, except for predetermined authorized numbers, like your mom&amp;#039;s and 911, until you stop the car. It&amp;#039;s been a while since we first wrote about text blocking applications, but David Pogue&amp;#039;s recent article for The New York Times reminded me that this is a topic that warrants constant dialogue until the problem goes away.  Here&amp;#039;s what&amp;#039;s available now:  iZup ($5/month): This app has a time-delay feature to account for stop lights, stop signs, and heavy traffic. It also lets you unblock a single application, say your GPS navigation. tXtBlocker ($25+ $10/month): With TxTBlocker you can set up &amp;quot;Safe Zones&amp;quot; to disable or limit functions. For instance, a parent can block a child from sending texts from school or receive a text if the child exceeds a certain speed limit. CellSafety ($10/month): CellSafety goes beyond just the textin-while-driving problem and also reduces inappropriate texting. Parents are notified when a concern is raised such as sexting, pedophiles, cyber-bullying, suicide or, gun talk. ZoomSafer ($3/month): ZoomSafer lets you send outbound calls via the one-touch voice dialer and receive inbound calls through hands-free options. A premium plan lets you hear and respond to email by voice. Otter ($3.99): While this app is only able to halt text messages, it has just one low upfront cost and no recurring monthly charges. Textecution ($29.99): If a passenger wants to use the texting features of the phone, the parent who registered the device has to provide permission via text message.  Note: If you have an iPhone, the current software doesn&amp;#039;t allow you to use a program that will stop a primary function of the phone, such as texting or calls. Also, phones without GPS won&amp;#039;t support the apps listed above. Cell Control and Key2SafeDriving both provide options for those without smartphones, but unfortunately they come at a steep price. Cell Control offers a transmitter for $90, $25 for the app and $8/month. Key2SafeDriving charges $100 for everything for the first year. The plus side to these devices is that since they don&amp;#039;t work off of GPS, they&amp;#039;re less of a drain on your battery and don&amp;#039;t block apps when you are on a train or bus. State by state, the laws for driving and cell phone use vary. You can see the full list of regulations on the Governors Highway Safety Association website. But regardless of what the law says, common sense should urge you to forgo the phone while driving.  Check back next week when I&amp;#039;ll tell you about some of the other new technologies now available for safer driving. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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