Hang Up And Drive

(cincinnati.com) -- As a deliveryman for UPS for the past 23 years, Fred Wenz has seen it all when it comes to bad driving.

His biggest pet peeve? Drivers yakking or texting on their cell phones while behind the wheel.

But a few years ago on yet another delivery run, the idea hit the Fort Thomas native: Why not create a device that blocks cell signals into and out of the driver's seat? It could be modeled after those ignition locks that can't be activated until a convicted drunk driver passes a blood alcohol check by blowing into a monitor on the dashboard.

"I witness it every day on the road, and I just thought there has to be a way that you can prevent this electronically," says Wenz, 40, whose company bans any cell use by its drivers.

That led Wenz to longtime friend John Fischer, another Fort Thomas native who now lives in Atlanta and has successfully filed patents for other electronic safety devices, including a timer for tanning beds.

The pair have formed Try Safety First LLC and filed a provisional patent on what they call the owner compliance key (or OCK) late last year. The device effectively blocks the incoming and outgoing radio signal to and from cell phones for a five-foot radius - effectively the space around a driver's seat.

The device can be adjusted to only be effective on a secondary key, such as one a parent would give a teen, or could be on the primary set of keys.

In the last two years, the duo has invested $250,000 of their own money into creating a working prototype. They now are actively seeking venture capital funding for the device that could cost as little as $10 apiece per vehicle when in production. If successful, they plan to build a company headquarters and manufacturing facility in Northern Kentucky.

"Freddy came to me and said 'I've got a great idea,' and now, I think we can get a client and be up in production in two years," says Fischer, 46. "I've been involved in a lot of companies, but never something with this kind of potential. We could be selling this into millions of cars if this can catch on."

The company seeking funding amid renewed attention on the subject of distracted driving caused by cell phones. The United States and Sweden are the only two industrialized countries that do not have national bans on use of a cell phone while driving (although most nations allow it with the use of a "hands free" device), according to the Web site Cellular News.com.

There is a new swell of bills considering banning cell phone use by drivers in state and local legislatures nationwide. Five states currently have bans on talking on cell phones while driving and six have bans on sending text messages while driving, according to the Governors Highway Safety Association. The city of Cleveland is considering an ordinance that would ban anyone from talking or texting on a cell while driving.

The National Safety Council, which initiated the push to require seat belts and then air bags, launched a major awareness campaign around the issue in January. The Itasca, Ill.-based non-profit safety advocacy group also advocates a ban on drivers using their devices while behind the wheel.

Nationally, statistics are sketchy on how big an issue this is, but more than 2,600 die and another 12,000 are seriously injured due to the phenomenon, according an estimate prepared by the Harvard Center of Risk Analysis and reported by the safety council. In addition, other studies indicate that a driver talking on a cell, even on a hands-free device such as a Bluetooth headset, is four times more likely to get into a crash - and those rates raise exponentially when texting.

Underreported problem?

Experts in traffic safety believe any reported numbers are probably low, since many drivers won't admit to talking or texting while driving after a wreck.

"I think anyone who does it would have to acknowledge to themselves that it's dangerous," says Carolyn Gorman, vice president of the Washington-based Insurance Information Institute, an insurance industry trade group.

A victim of one such accident recently signed up to help Wenz and Fischer promote their venture.

Last May, Jacy Good was in the back seat while her parents were driving her home immediately after her college graduation in Pennsylvania. Another driver ran a red light while using a cell phone, and caused a tractor-trailer to swerve and hit her parents head on. They were killed instantly, and Good - an honors graduate who was headed to work for Habitat for Humanity - was in a coma for a week. Good, now 22 and still in recovery, testified in favor of a cell-phone ban in front of the Pennsylvania state legislature recently, but has agreed to speak out for the new company.

"What John and Fred are working on makes the most sense, because people can get around the law and still use their phones," says Good. "I will do anything I can to deal with this problem. It's the least I can do for my parents."

How to proceed

The safety council won't endorse any particular mode of ending talking or texting on cell phones while driving, including Try Safety First's.

"We believe that technology can be a part of the solution, but we're not endorsing any one solution and say that it is going to take efforts from many different approaches," council spokeswoman Meredith Morris says.

There is also the issue of the 1934 federal law that bans jamming commercial radio signals, including cellular transmissions. But the duo say their safety argument is strong enough to merit an exemption - much like the television industry was granted in 1996 for the v-chip, which lets parents block inappropriate content for their children.

And experts disagree over whether talking on a cell is enough of a distraction to merit a legal ban - especially when the overall number of accidents is declining. But that is exactly why Wenz and Fischer believe their product is the perfect solution.

But in addition to trying to secure funding, Wenz and Fischer are lobbying to have their technology made mandatory in all U.S. vehicles, a novel yet time-consuming approach to creating demand. They have had audiences with several regulatory agencies as well as U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the Senate minority leader. The strategy is to get regulations in place to require automakers to include such technology in new cars, thereby instantly creating customers.

Fischer acknowledges it has been slow going, especially with U.S. automakers, even though he proposes selling it as an option at first for $99, which he says could net General Motors as much as $1 billion in extra revenue a year. At the same time, auto industry has presented other technologies, most notably the hands-free Sync system created by Ford in conjunction with Microsoft.

"All it takes is one," says Wenz. "If this works out, I will take great comfort in the amount of lives I've saved and kept from serious injury."