Inventors' device blocks cell use around driver

CINCINNATI -- Fred Wenz, a deliveryman for UPS for 23 years, has turned his frustration with drivers on cellphones into a safety business venture.

While on a run a few years ago, he came up with the idea for a device that blocks cell signals around a driver's seat. It's modeled on ignition locks that make a convicted drunken driver blow into an alcohol tester before the car will run.

"I witness it every day on the road, and I just thought, 'There has to be a way that you can prevent this electronically,' " says Wenz, 40.

Wenz and longtime friend John Fischer have formed Try Safety First and filed a provisional patent on what they call the owner compliance key (or OCK) late last year.

The device blocks signals to and from cellphones for a 5-foot radius, effectively the space around a driver's seat. It also can be set to be effective only on a secondary key, such as one a parent gives a teen.

In the last two years, the duo have invested $250,000 into a working prototype and now are seeking venture capital for the device that could cost as little as $10 per vehicle when in production.

"We could be selling this into millions of cars if this can catch on," says Fischer, 46.

It comes amid renewed attention to driving and cellphones. The U.S. and Sweden are the only two industrialized nations without national bans except for "hands-free" devices, according to website Cellular-News.com. A swell of new laws are being considered by state and local legislators. Five states now ban cell use while driving; six ban texting, says the Governors Highway Safety Association.

The non-profit National Safety Council launched an awareness campaign on the issue in January and supports a ban.

Nationally, more than 2,600 people die and an additional 12,000 are seriously injured each year due to the phenomenon, according to an estimate prepared by the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis and reported by the safety council. Other studies indicate that a driver talking even via a hands-free device is four times more likely to get into a crash.