Hands on the Wheel! Free Your Thumbs – Speak a Text Instead!

Much has been in the news lately on the dangers of texting while driving. Just last week New York’s Governor Paterson signed a statewide ban on texting while driving that according to Newsday covers cell phones, BlackBerries and other personal digital assistants, pagers, electronic gaming devices, laptops, two-way messaging systems and other equipment for text messages while driving. Seems iPods are excluded, along with messaging in an emergency. A violation is punishable by a fine of up to $150.

This statewide law is not going to be the last – in fact 23 states today have enacted such bans. And a group of US Senators are currently looking into their role in legislating texting while driving – a missive that garnered further fuel for the fire following the released results of a Virginia Tech Transportation Institute study that found truck drivers that text while driving are 23 times more likely to get into an accident. Or put another way, the study concluded drivers who were text messaging had their eyes off the road for 4.6 seconds over a six-second interval, or enough time to travel the length of a football field at 55 mph.

Common sense tells us it probably isn’t wise to drive while texting – good to have both eyes on the road and hands on the wheel – for everyone’s safety. But, the allure of texting in the moment is too great to deny. We know. We’ve seen the research that shows text messages are responded to within minutes if not seconds – whereas voice messages can go unheard for days or left in the unheard message abyss forever. Texting is fun, exciting and addictive!

What many may not realize is that there are solutions out there today to help everyone meet in the middle. We at SpinVox have long been proponents of speaking one’s text messages and even recently worked with nFinity to co-develop a speak-an-email functionality in the Quick Voice Pro iPhone app. One click, speak your email or memo to yourself and it is delivered to the selected email inbox in minutes!

Today if you are a SpinVox customer in the U.S. chances are you already have speak-a-reply as part of your VoxLinks at the bottom of each message. One click, speak a message and the recipient receives a text.

But what about the rest of you who aren’t on one of SpinVox carrier partner networks or an iPhone user? Ask and you shall receive! Ask your mobile carrier to make available a speak-a-text option as part of your plan!  In the meantime if you are based in the US you can try SpinVox speak a text by dialing 980 939 8785.  You can save the number on your phone and use the service again and again. SpinVox will not charge you for the service but network charges may apply to your call. If you are based in the UK, Spain or Canada simply click on `Try SpinVox` on your SpinVox country home page for your SpinVox speak a text number.

Speech-to-text technology is here today – highly accurate, reliable and can work on any network. Free your thumbs while driving – you may just be saving your life or someone else’s.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 1st, 2009 at 1:46 pm and is filed under SpinVox .
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