Australia Looking to Launch Anti-Texting Gadget in Cars

Sydney (PNA/Xinhua) — Australia could be the first country to launch a device which jams texting signals and calls in cars.

Accidents caused by drivers texting on their mobile phones while their cars in motion have increased in recent years despite strict laws being introduced to stop the practice in Australia.

American Scott Tibbitts invented the device after he turned up to a business meeting in 2008 to find the man he was meeting had been killed by a texting driver.

“I got there and he’d been killed a couple of hours before,” Tibbitts told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

“It started this process of thinking, ‘what’s the solution going to be?'”

Tibbitts is a technology expert and has previously made space parts for the United States’ National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

He is in Australia on Thursday negotiating with telecommunications and insurance companies about releasing his invention in Australia in a world-first.

It is a small gadget that fits under the steering wheel of most car models made after 1996.

It connects the car to the internet, and then blocks the driver from receiving calls and texts on their mobile phone, such as text messages, while the engine is on.

But the device does not block direction-finding GPS systems. (PNA/Xinhua) JBP/EBP