Driving Drunk – There’s An App For That
Gail Chiasson, North American Editor
There’s no excuse for driving drunk and with this App, there’s simply no excuse for driving drunk or even a little bit inebriated.
Whilst the app was launched a few months ago, we thought it might be an interesting App to bring to the industry’s attention, because there are few amongst us that don’t have an occasional drink or two.
Drivers everywhere continue to ignore signs that they are unfit to get behind the wheel after alcohol consumption, a crucial variable that contributes to the 11,773 estimated deaths in the U.S. alone from drunk driving crashes in 2008, according to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The simple fact is that regardless of if you believe yourself to have a ‘high tolerance’, if you have above a .08 Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) – it is illegal to get behind the wheel. (In Canada, some provinces are now looking at lowering the BAC to .05% or even Zero tolerance, especially for young drivers.)
The Funtoxication App for iPhone and iPod touch is helping users to monitor their alcohol consumption and prevent them from driving intoxicated.
Funtoxication uses a standard scientific BAC formula based on the user provided data of age, sex, and weight, along with alcohol type and time spent consuming alcohol, to calculate an estimate of the user’s BAC as well as the following functions:
- Track the users alcohol consumption in real time after creating a profile based on age, sex, and weight (once created the App can be closed and will start tracking BAC in real time);
- Log the type of specific alcohol (beer, liquor, wine) consumed for the users reference;
- Provide a variety of drink sizes for the user to accurately track their consumption amount (drink sizes vary by ounces and specific name, ie. bottle, can, plastic cup);
- Provide alerts when the user is over the minimum legal driving limit of a .08 BAC;
- Offer the user the option to call a taxi, using the applications built in taxi search function;
- Provide three built-in, entertaining Monkey games to test the users concentration, short-term memory and quick response time.
While there is no substitute for being responsible when it comes to getting into a vehicle after consuming alcohol; Funtoxication is one tool that aims to get in between the alcohol consumer and a tragic traffic incident – for only $0.99.
Michael Tankenoff, president at North Loop Media LLC, Minneapolis, along with TryCatchGames, St. Paul, developed the App. Both firms are in Minnesota.
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