Lauryn Hughes | staff writer

Have you ever been driving, minding your own business and you look over at a red light and see a fellow driver snap chatting and think, how can you possibly be focussed on driving and snapping? Why are you risking your life and the lives of others to send a cat filtered photo, can’t it wait?

As a student driver, I can say that the rules of driving are strict, but these rules have been put in place to protect everyone on the road. While I’ve been driving, I see a lot of people not following those rules, like what the heck! From not using a blinker to texting at the wheel, some people are rule breakers. I’m also a victim of the despicable destructor, every so often I’ll look at my phone, the little distracting device, to change a song or two, not good. I’ve recently been shown a new app that you can install on your phone called SAFE2SAVE and I must say that I’m pleased at what the app is doing.

SAFE2SAVE is a driving safety app with benefits. You drive safe and you save money! It’s that simple. The app is a reminder on your phone that you can personalize with a family photo, or a cat photo your choice, to question, “Is it  really worth it”to send a text or snap a chat right that second. If you try to open your phone while driving an alert is sent to your phone saying that it can wait and to not drive distracted.

For however long you drive safely, you earn points that you can use to save money on food, (who doesn’t like free food) and other recreational activities,  in the area where you live. You get rewarded points each time you drive undistracted as you reach 10 mph or more on the road, which can become really convenient for students who drive a lot.

The points you earn will add up and you can “redeem” the points at local restaurants such as Chick Fil A and Lennys’ Subs, even though you can only use one of the coupons in a day, I don’t know about anyone else but I can speak for myself when I say that I love a good deal. In the time that I have been using the app, I have earned over 600 points and counting. I’ve gone to food restaurants such as Chick Fil A to test out the app and I have no complaints at all. The coupon worked perfectly and I got a free Chick Fil A sandwich.

There was, however, one thing about the app that made it harder than it should be. It could just be me but it took forever for me to figure out how to get Apple or Google maps to work, and making sure it was tracking my points. But after a day it works amazing and I really enjoy the promotion of free stuff and safe driving.