JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- We hear about the dangers associated with distracted driving all the time, but many people still do it. A local woman has put together a new cell phone application that hopes to combine convenience with prizes to get drivers to hang up.
"I was driving to school and my phone was just going crazy with text messages and emails all at one time," Alexa Napoleon, a 22-year-old volleyball coach at Bishop Kenny High School, said. "I don't text and drive."
Alexa has a proposal for local and large businesses that could help save lives. With the help of her business-savvy father, the pair created a new cell phone app, to stop distracted driving, called ProTEXTUs.
"We had it formatted, patented, copyrighted," Alexa said. "it's kind of like a game model."
Her program has something many similar applications don't - incentive - a reason for people to download and actually use it, without having to pay anything.
"For each mile that the person using protextus drives, you get points, and at the end of each month you can turn in those points for prizes that we would get from any kind of sponsors that we can find," she said.
So she's shopping around for sponsors, looking for companies that can get some advertising by offering redeemable rewards for users.
"Coca cola or Apple or $25 for iTunes, you know, whatever we can find," she explained.
The app, which will be offered for free, works in 3 ways. You can turn it on manually, auto-set it to turn on when you reach speeds above 5 miles per hour, or simply scan a sticker that you can put on your car, one they'll send you after your download.
"That way you know I'm not ignoring you, I'm not putting off you phone calls," she said. "And at the bottom of that text there will be a line with any sponsors name we can get. So they're making money off of it, while keeping people safe."
If you would like to get involved or learn more head to ProTEXTUs.org.
In the meantime, we want to remind you that First Coast News strongly encourages safe driving. We have a pledge you can sign, The Great First Coast Hang Up.