Hitchhikers using safety text service

A new text service developed to help keep hitch-hikers safe is proving popular.

The cellphone service, Safe, was launched by Telecom after the murder of German hitch-hiker Birgit Brauer, near New Plymouth in September last year.

The idea for the service came from NZPA journalist Simon Louisson and was aimed at people walking late at night or getting into vehicles driven by someone they did not know.

Safe allows Telecom mobile users to send a free text message to 7233 when they want details of their whereabouts, intended destination and car number plate to be recorded.

Telecom spokesman Sean Martin said several hundred messages had been lodged on the database since its inception in October, The Press newspaper reported today.

"The mere fact that people are using the service means it is a success. It is available for those people who want to use it. Prior to the launch, nothing like this existed."

The launch of the service had been kept deliberately low-key, because the murder of Brauer was still fresh in people's minds, he said.

Mr Louisson said he was pleased the service was doing well, however he thought it needed to be promoted a bit better.

"If they don't do that, then it is in danger of ... dying through not being supported," he said.

He believed the service could be used by a whole range of people, including prostitutes getting into strange cars.

"It is a way of using technology to make the world a wee bit safer.

"It is not going to stop these things, but I imagine that guy who did what he did to Birgit Brauer, if he had been clocked like that I doubt he would have done what he did," Mr Louisson said.

- NZPA