On a Wisconsin street, a woman in a white hoodie stands frozen in place, stepping out of the road and onto the curb, her left hand reaching behind her. As part of a public service announcement, she explains why she's there as string music slowly plays under her voice.
"I had my brother in my hand and all of a sudden my hand was empty," Aurie says as a car drives past. Her little brother, 8 years old at the time of PSA, was left paralyzed after being hit by a car driven by a texting driver.
Movie director Werner Herzog and AT&T made this PSA as an emotional appeal, part of the "It Can Wait" campaign. But emotional appeals only go so far. Where the pleading fades, parents, cities and software companies try to pick up the slack with a technological approach.
A patent from Apple could play a big role in helping teens — and adults — avoid accidents. The proposed feature, which would lock out certain features such as texts and calls, is not the first of its kind. There's DriveAssistT, created in 2008, and TEXTL8R, both developed by Aegis Mobility to block calls and texts. There're other devices that try to make young drivers safer beyond the texting angle, such as by using MyKey, a chip in the car key that you program to limit radio volume or sound a continuous alert if the driver doesn't wear a seatbelt. And Drive Pulse, which tracks the location of the car, as well as things like driving at high speeds or slamming on the breaks.
As NPR's Steve Henn reported last year, there are options:
"Parents today are raising digital natives. Many toddlers are as likely to amuse themselves with a touch screen as a set of blocks. Texts, mobile phones, video games and gadgets have surrounded teens their entire lives.
"Today's parents may not have grown up in a tech-saturated world, but almost every day new technologies come to market that give them more options when it comes to keeping tabs on their kids."