43
Anti-texting crusader stops at YSU to sign up recruitsSFlb
By JEANNE STARMACK
YOUNGSTOWN
Wayne Irving II is letting people scribble all over his motor home.
But they have to promise something first.
“Do you agree texting while driving is bad?” he asked Youngstown State University senior Jennifer Scacchetti of Lowellville Friday as his motor home was parked on the campus near Kilcawley Center.
“Yeah,” she said.
“Will you agree not to do it?” he asked her.
“Yeah,” she said — the answer that won her the felt marker. She signed her name on the TextKills College Tour motor home among what has to be thousands of others.
Her friend, Nicole Sabo, a senior from Columbiana, also signed her name.
Has Sabo ever texted while driving?
“I pull over to do it,” she said. “If I’m at a red light, I might check it.”
Does she know someone who does text and drive a lot?
Yes, she acknowledged.
With texting so prevalent these days, Irving is driven — literally from California to Washington, D.C. — to stop it while people are behind the wheel.
Irving is the CEO of a company called Iconosys Inc., of Laguna Hills, Calif. The company has developed an application for smart phones that tells people someone is driving and can’t answer a text or a call.
The tour has stopped at a dozen schools and was leaving YSU for the University of Pittsburgh.
Tuesday, it will arrive in Washington, where Irving will be a guest of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s second annual distracted-driving summit.
Meanwhile, he’s giving away free downloads of 100,000 copies of the company’s application, called the SMS Replier, to college students. The donation is worth approximately $2 million.
The application works on Android, Windows Mobile and BlackBerry smart phones.