Business Related Distracted Driving News

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                        CONTACT: Cathy Gillen; (443) 463-4449

March 8, 2013                                                           [email protected]                           

NEW TECHNOLOGY UNVEILED TO HELP END DEADLY HABIT OF HAND HELD CELL PHONE USE WHILE DRIVING

WHAT:                      News conference to launch the national availability of ORIGO™ – a technology designed to help end the deadly habit of handheld cell phone use while driving by preventing motorists from starting vehicles until their phone is in a docking station.  

WHEN:                      Tuesday, March 12 at 1:00 p.m.

WHERE:                   National Press Club

                                    529 14^th Street, NW – Bloomberg Room Washington, DC  20045

WHY:                        

• ·         In 2010, 3092 people were killed in crashes in the U.S. involving a distracted driver and an estimated additional 416,000 were injured in motor vehicle crashes involving a distracted driver (source:  National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA); www.distraction.gov));

• ·         11% of all drivers under the age of 20 involved in fatal crashes were reported as distracted at the time of the crash. This age group has the largest proportion of drivers who were distracted (source:  NHTSA; www.distraction.gov);

• ·         Texting takes drivers’ eyes off the road for an average of 4.6 seconds.  At 55 mph, this is the same as driving the length of a football field blind-folded (source:  NHTSA; www.distraction.gov);

• ·         Texting and driving can be almost six times more dangerous than drinking and driving (source:  NHTSA; www.distraction.gov);

• ·         ORIGO™ is designed to help eliminate the extremely dangerous visual-manual cell phone acts of dialing, texting and reaching that have been found to statistically increase crash risk.   

WHO:                        

• ·        Cheryl Lynch, ORIGO Director of Sales and Marketing, Roanoke, VA;
• ·        Clay Skelton, ORIGO Founder and Inventor, Roanoke, VA;
• ·        Sandy Spavone, Executive Director, National Organizations for Youth Safety (NOYS), Gainesville, VA.
• ·        Meg Carter, Roanoke, VA:  Meg is the mother of two college age daughters.  She is interested in purchasing ORIGO for both their cars as well as for her and her husband’s vehicles.
• ·        Amanda Kloehr, Distracted Driving Crash Victim, Enola, PA:  In June of 2008 Kloehr was in a severe car crash near Norfolk, VA that changed her life in many ways.  Kloehr doesn’t quite remember what she was doing when she slammed into the back of a tractor- trailer but she knows she was distracted from either talking on her cellphone, trying to find a radio station, checking her GPS, or fiddling with the windows because her air conditioning was broken.  She was doing all those things during her drive from McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey, where she was stationed, to visit a friend in Newport News, VA.  All she knows is, that moment of not paying attention cost her an eye, nearly cost her life and led to more than 20 surgeries to rebuild her smashed face.  Now 24, Kloehr warns other people about the dangers of distracted driving.  See www.amandareconstructed.com for additional information and photos.

ATTENTION TV EDITORS, RE:  VISUALS:

Video will be shown and will be made available that includes:

• ·         The functionality of the product and how it works;
• ·         Man on the street interviews with consumers, re: their thoughts on the product.

In addition, a demo box of the actual ORIGO product will be available in the Bloomberg Room at the Press Club event and a demo will be given as part of the news conference;

Finally, two vehicles that have the ORIGO equipment already installed in them will be available outside of the Press Club for filming/demonstrations immediately following the event for those members of the media that are interested.

For more information on ORIGO please visit www.DriveOrigo.com.

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