A Queenstown man has created a new smartphone app which he hopes one day will save lives.
Boyd Peacock says he was motivated to develop Get Home Safe after an aluminium catamaran sank in January last year in Fouveaux Strait, which resulted in two men drowning.
"I've grown up in Southland and there's too many Southlanders at the bottom of that straight," says Mr Peacock.
He says it could be invaluable for various outdoor activities. The user logs in trip details and when to raise the alarm.
"Every two minutes the app takes your position and how much battery you have left, sends it back to us, and you store it safely in the server. As soon as your timer expires it sends an alert; then a screen pops up saying we've notified your contacts."
The phone user chooses who these contacts are, and it's up to them to call the emergency services.
He says if any of the five men on a catamaran that sank off Ruapuke Island in January last year had the app, they would have been rescued before two of them succumbed to the cold after five hours in the water.
There were several smartphones that were quite capable of sending their location back.
The Mountain Safety Council is impressed with the app.
"The wilderness was the developers' inspiration, but it also works in day-to-day life in a big city, another tool to literally keep people safe," says Mountain Safety Council chief executive Daryl Carpenter.
3 News
source: newshub archive
