ABC Action News is taking action against distracted driving

TAMPA - This summer, ABC Action News is partnering with local law enforcement to take action against distracted drivers. The period between the 4th of July and Labor Day is considered the deadliest 100 driving days for teens, with more fatal accidents than at any other time of the year. During the next six weeks, we're taking a closer look at the cause behind these crashes and how you can keep your family safe.

ABC Action News already takes action for your commute by providing traffic updates on Twitter @TampaBayTraffic , and we encourage you to check it before hitting the road. Now we've added a new feature: a list of "Safe Driving" Tweeters , who share in our effort to curb distracted driving.

They include @DontTwive or Don't Tweet and Drive . It is a grass-roots effort by Barbara Greene of Atlanta, whose 17-year-old stepdaughter Maisey caused a serious accident when she took her eyes off the road.

"She looked down at her iPod for one second on her way to school, ended up crossing the center line and sideswiping another car. She then overcorrected, went off the right side of the road then went in to a really steep ditch."

Maisey walked away from the crash, but the accident fueled Greene to start Don't Tweet and Drive. She searches Twitter for users who are clearly tweeting while driving, waits to ensure the driver is no longer on the road, then sends them a personal message.

"I'll see a lot of comments like 'Oh, I just had a close call,'" says Greene. "And I reply, 'close calls should be considered a wakeup call.'"

The folks behind the @Drive Safe_ly Twitter feed and the software company iSpeech say a wake-up call of sorts led them to create a mobile phone app aimed to stop distracted driving.

"One of our employees was actually rear-ended by a texting driver," says CEO Heath Ahrens. "Since we're in the text-to-speech business we thought that it might be a good solution for people to be able to listen to messages while they're driving, with the human-sounding iSpeech voice reading it."

The DriveSafe.ly app, currently available for Blackberry and Droid users, intercepts texts and email and reads them to the occupied driver/ An automatic response is generated that states the recipent of the text or email is driving and will return the message later.

Also on our Safe Driver list are tweeters like @TextArrest , the Twitter feed for the company of the same name that produces an app that disables certain phone features while driving , and tweets from @Idrivefocused , another company that writes about why distracted driving is bad for your health.

Connect with all of these tweeters and many more by following @TampaBayTraffic . And look for more special reports on the dangers of distracted driving in the coming weeks on ABC Action News.