Between 1 December 2014 and 5 January this year, there were 1 118 fatal road accidents recorded, resulting in 1 368 fatalities.

Such frightening statistics have prompted short-term insurer Santam to develop an app which is designed to help your friends and family make sure you arrive safely. The app is available to the general public from Google Play for Android phones or from the App store for iPhones and iPads.

Once you’ve downloaded the app, whether you’re driving, cycling, walking or running, selected friends and family will be notified about your starting point and your destination, as well as the estimated duration of your trip. They will also be notified once you’ve reached your destination. The app will also send them alerts via SMS if you’re delayed for some reason.

Nathan van Rooyen, Santam’s head of digital marketing, says that if you no longer want your movements to be monitored, you can terminate the process by sending a notification to this effect to your guardians. It’s a cross-platform app, so it doesn’t matter whether your guardians are on Android or Apple devices – they will be able to see your progress live on a map. Friends and family with other platforms and devices can also act as guardians, but will only receive SMS notications indicating the start and end of your journey.

The app also features an accident and incident reporter, which will guide you through a simple, step-by-step process to report, document and submit an accident or incident report directly to your insurer, all within a matter of minutes. You can scan the barcode of your vehicle licence disc (and those of other vehicles involved), record audio witness statements, take and store incident photos, find the nearest police station, and locate the closest Santam drive-in centre to start the repair process. If you are not insured with Santam, you can forward this information to your own broker or insurer via email.