Automatic Crash Reporting for Your Smart Phone

For a few years now people wandering about the planet unattended have been able to carry GPS emergency locating devices.  Should something bad happen they can put a button on the unit and the system will send an emergency message to the appropriate people.  The draw back was/is that units are in the $100 and up price range and require an annual a subscription service.  Now there is a free alternative for those with an Android based smartphone.

The excellent people at ActionXL, who create Android operating system applications for business, have created a free app for Android phones.  The app, called CRADAR, uses your smart phone's motion sensor to sense a jarring movement, like say, oh, a motorcycle crash.  The app then sends a text message complete with GPS coordinates to whatever phone number you've specified.  For those of us who ride alone and often in rural or remote areas, CRADAR provides a degree of security should things all go wrong.

I wrote my brother:  "If you don’t mind, I’m going to put your phone number in there for the text message. I’m going to use the app when I'm riding so if I take a fall you’ll know and can quickly fly to Arizona and help me pick the bike up or call 911, whichever is easier."



If you have a smart phone using the Android operating system you'll find the app in the Android Market Place.  A big tip of the helmet to the folks a ActionXL for providing a great safety tool for motorcyclists, bicyclists, hikers, and others out and about.