The provincial government and ICBC are teaming up to reduce the amount of distracted driving.

A pilot project introducing a phone app, paired with Telematic will work to block the use of a handheld device when in-vehicle.

The project won’t start until the new year and we have to recruit up to 200 volunteers to test the new app out says Road Safety Program Manager Mark Milner.

“What we’re going to discover through this is customer acceptance and customer comfort level with this kind of technology. So we can make sure this is the right thing for our customers as something they would actually support.”

Milner says if the project is successful they’ll be looking carefully at what the next step should be.

“What we want to do ultimately is reduce the number of crashes on BC’s roads and as a result of that we can hopefully reduce the amount of money that people are paying for their auto insurance in British Columbia.”

On average 78 people die every year in crashes where distracted driving is a contributing factor.

It’s also responsible for 27 per cent of all fatalities in bc.